Book Review: The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt

My Rating: 4.25⭐️

“You know someone, and then you don’t know them, and in their absence you wonder what their life was made up of.”

The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt is a quiet, contemplative novel that revolves around seventy-one-year-old retired librarian Bob Comet. When we meet Bob, he lives alone in his mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon, surrounded by his books and his memories of a life lived with dignity and mostly, in solitude. Divorced after a brief marriage over forty-five years ago, he doesn’t have any close friends or romantic entanglements. He lives a simple, lonely yet seemingly content life. One day, he sees an elderly woman, lost and wandering in a shop near his home. An ID card with her address indicates that she is a resident of Gambell-Reed Senior Center. Bob eventually decides to volunteer at the Center, hoping to fill the time in his retirement as well as indulge in sharing his love for literature with the residents. Though everything doesn’t quite go according to plans, Bob does find himself spending time with the residents of the Center. A chance revelation that has a connection to his past does create a stir in his life and finds himself mulling over the past and exacting change in the way he contemplates his future.

The author writes with insight and compassion. The non-linear narrative takes a while to get used to, and the pace is on the slower side, which suits the story. Bob Comet is a simple man who loves his books and has enjoyed his life as a librarian, but he has never considered his life to be particularly eventful, barring a childhood escapade and his failed marriage. We follow Bob’s story moving back and forth between past and present, with glimpses into the people and events that shaped Bob’s life and we follow Bob as he gradually becomes a part of the community at the Center. All his memories are not happy ones but have contributed to Bob’s way of looking at life and himself. His experiences and interactions with his peers inspire Bob to reevaluate the way he has perceived his life, the people in it and himself. This story emphasizes the fact that not everyone’s lives have to be defined by dramatic change or shocking turns, but a life well-lived can be the result of the seemingly inconsequential events one has lived through along with the moments of sorrow, joy, loneliness and companionship we commit to memory. Beautifully written, full of heart with a good dose of humor, this is a beautiful story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Many thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel is due to be released on July 4, 2023.

“Because it’s a fool who argues with happiness, while the wiser man accepts it as it comes, if it comes at all.”