Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior centre that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he’s known since retiring, Bob begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.
Behind Bob Comet’s straight man facade is the story of an unhappy child’s runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian’s vocation, and the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses.
My reading experience:
In the first part of this book we meet Bob as an elderly man in 2005-2006, content in his retirement, never wanting more. Then a chance encounter at a local shop brings him to a care home, where he decides (although that may be too strong a word) to volunteer. This part of the book is lively, with a kaleidoscope of characters and so easy to read, rich as it is in description. On another happenstance discovery the book changes and we journey backwards in Bob’s life, and things become darker, and sorrowful.
A surprising perspective in this book, is the vision of passion pained, but also of a discovery of emotions. The reader learns more about the quiet and quietly content librarian, and again, another reminder about the assumptions we make about each other.
Bob’s childhood memory of running away culminates in the end of the war (second world war) and him being driven home by the town Sheriff. He’d had an adventure that stayed with him like a fading photograph. And who knew about frizzling?!
The books ends back in 2006, in a stylish wrapping up of Bob’s story, or at least of his great sorrow.
I absolutely loved this book, both elegant and elegiac. Bob truly is, a librarianist.
I highly recommend The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt.
Appletree Books 