Bob Comet is a retired librarian who lives in a mint house. I also am a retired librarian who lives in a mint house (or at least I will once the renovations are done). Beyond this the character in this novel and I don't have much in common.
deWitt's book reminds me a bit of Anne Tyler's books. There is a lot of description of what happens in the life of the characters, but we don't get a lot of insight into how they processed their experiences. There isn't even much about Bob's library work, although we do learn why he became interested in it. The only passage I marked was this unfortunate description of Bob's boss
Never has there been a librarian less inclined, less suitable to represent the limitless glory of the language arts than Miss Ogilvie. She cared not at all for literacy or the perpetuation of any one school or author, and Bob never one saw her take up a book for pleasure. Her function, as she saw it, was to maintain the sacred nonnoise of the library environment. "What these people do with the silence is beyond my purview," Miss Ogilivie told Bob. "But silence they shall have." The human voice, when presented above the level of a whisper, invigorated her with what could be named a plain hate...
I picked this book up at Thunder Road Books in New Jersey during a recent road trip to Maryland. This bookstore is profiled in The Secret Life of Booksellers and Librarians (which I will be blogging about soon, once my husband and I have finished reading it together).
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