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Indlæser... The Librarianist (udgave 2023)af Patrick deWitt
Work InformationThe Librarianist af Patrick deWitt
   Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. [3.25] deWitt’s book was oozing with potential as it strived to unearth the unique threads that are woven through the most ordinary of lives. I loved a few of the characters, and the tale is laced with more than a dozen delightful laugh-out-loud vignettes. Sadly, it moves along at a proverbial snail’s pace and is at least one-third longer than it needs to be (I feel like a malfunctioning audiobook because I find myself all too often penning this critique about books). The plot is a bit predictable and — in a couple spots — incredulous. Still, any work of fiction that makes me think and also laugh a dozen or more times is worthy of 3.25 stars. (  ) brianinbuffalo | Sep 23, 2023 |  Enjoyed this lovely little book - the simplistic dialog is reminiscent of a Hemingway novel. The cast of characters is fleshy and diverse. June and Ida need their own novel! Bob is a wonderfully solid everyman who drifts along on the changing currents of his life without tremendous drama - and, of course, he is a librarian! (  ) elifra | Sep 17, 2023 | 3.75 stars An introverts slice of life with a mini mystery thrown in. I loved 2/3 of this - the section of his life as an 11 year old I found dreadfully boring which is why I had to lower the rating to a 3.75. I was especially fond of his time at the library as I was also a librarian back in the day. The ending wasn't the satisfying conclusion I had hoped for, but it makes sense in regards to who Bob is. A quiet but at times, poignant book. (  ) spiritedstardust | Sep 8, 2023 | Happy Publication Day! July 4, 2023 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 Bob 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 him 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 life has 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.” ( ) srms.reads | Sep 4, 2023 | The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt is charming when it stays with the protagonist Bob Comet as a librarian and his retirement but some of the flashbacks seem like a distraction and hold up the action. The ending works so that is a plus. ( ) GordonPrescottWiener | Aug 24, 2023 |
The Librarianist is unyielding in its defiance of our arguably too-set expectations about how novels should depict human interiority in times of flux, crisis, or transition. Bob Comet is no comet; he is a steady, low-voltage star, a pinprick of light who only partially awakens to the complexity of his own life. By the end, I came to admire Patrick deWitt’s commitment to the mission he has set himself: to render a figure who is not beaten up by loss or reformed by insight, a man who remains, nearly always, resolutely himself.  Patrick deWitt’s novel “The Librarianist” offers a quirky, affectionate portrait of a retired librarian who discovers friendship and community late in life...“The Librarianist,” a quirky, affectionate portrait of an introverted loner who makes some surprising connections late in life, DeWitt tames the outlandishness without sacrificing his offbeat humor. His bemused sense of compassion for his characters recalls Anne Tyler, with whom he shares a soft spot for misfits, along with a firm conviction that even supposedly ordinary people lead extraordinary lives. .. The title character, Bob Comet, is a former librarian in deWitt’s hometown of Portland, Oregon.... DeWitt’s great achievement is in creating, perhaps for the first time, a character whose very ordinariness is his defining feature. Of course, the section at the Hotel Elba goes to show the extent to which an ordinary life can be deceptive, though this comes at a cost on the level of emotional resonance. The aching heart of “The Librarianist” is a piercing seriocomic character study of isolation and abandonment. Would that deWitt had left his more flamboyant tendencies in the drawer for this one
Fiction.
Literature.
Humor (Fiction.)
HTML: From bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes the story of Bob Comet, a man who has lived his life through and for literature, unaware that his own experience is a poignant and affecting narrative in itself. Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts 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 center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance 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 façade 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 of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob's experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life. With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert's condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Indlæser...GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit: (3.4)
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