“[A] wildly imaginative author.” — Washington Post
“This engrossing fictional portrait of a retired librarian volunteering at an old folks home unspools its main character’s life—betrayals, loss, triumphs—with humor and tenderness.” — Vanity Fair
“Warmhearted. [The Librarianist] shares the attributes of its hero: likable, unshowy. . .reliably soothing.” — Wall Street Journal
“[A] poignant character study. . .DeWitt’s writing and endearing characters create a memorable world." — Los Angeles Times
“Patrick deWitt is a 21st-century Mark Twain. . . .The warmth that deWitt exhibits here gives this one an emotional staying power . . . Is it possible to change the contours of your personality late in life, with, as the woman with the prophetic space heater puts it, ‘the knowledge of a long dusk coming on’? The final scene in The Librarianist features an answer as modest as it is revolutionary, but deWitt has spent the preceding pages making the oxymoron of a modest revolution utterly believable. The answer is: maybe a little bit. Maybe enough.” — Laura Miller, Slate
"I think each Patrick deWitt novel is going to be the one that helps everyone fall in love with his writing, but The Librarianist could finally do it. . . . DeWitt's dialogue moves with the speed and precision of great conversation . . . Bright and entertaining from beginning to end." — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A quiet, melancholy novel, one that is perfect for long summer evenings.” — Town & Country
"[An] affectionate portrait of an introverted loner who makes some surprising connections late in life. . .[DeWitt’s] 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." — Christian Science Monitor
“A bittersweet tale of a retired librarian . . . DeWitt imbues the people he meets with color and quirks, leaving a trail of sparks . . . This one gradually takes hold until it won’t let go.” — Publishers Weekly
“Bob Comet, a retired librarian . . . brings to mind John Williams’ Stoner and Thoreau’s chestnut about ‘lives of quiet desperation,’ but it is telling that deWitt chooses to capture him at times when his life takes a turn. A quietly effective and moving character study.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“Readers come to deWitt (French Exit, 2018) for his brand of slightly off-kilter storytelling blessed with exuberant characterizations, gleeful dialogue, and a proprietary blend of darkness and charm, all strung up in lights here. Gripping, random, and totally alive? Check, check, and check.” — Booklist
“The Librarianist is another charmer from an author who knows how to delight.” — BookPage
“DeWitt’s great gift lies in his ability to depict the Everyman in extremis – heroism hidden in plain sight.” — Telegraph (UK)
“DeWitt takes us on a waltzer of a ride, twisting through Bob’s life.” — Financial Times (UK)
“The Booker Prize–shortlisted deWitt creates an endearing character in Bob Comet, who, at the age of 72, and after a lifetime of low expectations, finds life’s answers and the friends he deeply needs. This novel begs to be read.” — Booklist
“A nuanced account of heartbreak and emotional confusion. . . .I would heartily recommend The Librarianist. It is full of subtle reflections on contemporary life and. . .deceptively biting humor.” — The Independent (UK)
“I found the whole reading experience utterly charming…The dialogue is fresh and characters come alive immediately on the page and there’s simply an energy to deWitt’s books that make them pleasurable to spend time with, and that’s all on display in The Librarianist." — Chicago Tribune
"The protagonist of Patrick DeWitt’s latest novel both upholds and belies the image of the quiet librarian. When Bob Comet, retired librarian, begins volunteering at a local senior center to fill the void he’s felt since retirement, we start to learn more about his colorful, complex past. As he gathers a coterie of interesting new acquaintances around him, these mingle and mix with characters from his past to create an engaging read about a seeming introvert’s far-from-ordinary life." — Electric Literature
“Heartwarming . . . . Weaving accounts of wartime bravery, lost romance, and the unconventional joys of the everyday, deWitt celebrates the extraordinary moments nestled within the ordinary with wit and empathy.” — Monocle
04/03/2023
DeWitt follows up French Exit with a bittersweet tale of a retired librarian. It’s 2005 in Portland, Ore., but Bob Comet, 71, is stuck in the past. He’s lived alone since he was a young man in the house he inherited from his mother, who died when he was 23. Intensely introverted, Bob has no friends or family and communicates with the world “by walking through it, but mainly by reading about it.” One day, he follows a lost elderly woman out of a convenience store. From her name tag, he deduces she is from the local senior center and returns her there. After a tour, Bob decides to volunteer, and soon he bonds with a motley group of seniors and gradually shares details of his life. He was briefly married, having divorced 45 years earlier just months after his new bride ran off with his charismatic best man, leaving Bob with a “shock of bitterness... as if he’d been unkindly tricked.” Before, the young Bob had plenty of adventures—at 11, he ran away from home and befriended two elderly women who tried to get him to join the theater. Though Bob is quite staid, deWitt imbues the people he meets with color and quirks, leaving a trail of sparks through an otherwise low-key narrative. This one gradually takes hold until it won’t let go. Agent: Doug Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic. (July)
07/01/2023
In deWitt's fifth novel (after French Exit), Bob Comet, a retired librarian in Portland, OR, is an unassuming man with quiet pastimes; a man with few friends and no family. But his routine life changes completely when he chances to walk into a convenience store and meets an older woman who seems lost and confused. According to the laminated card hanging around her neck, Chip lives at the Gambell-Reed Senior Center, and Bob becomes fascinated by the residents there, eventually signing up to volunteer. Finally he has landed in a place where he feels he belongs, a place he's been searching for ever since he was betrayed decades ago by the only two people he loved, his wife Connie and friend Ethan. But when Chip's son Sam arrives to take her to a more secure facility, Bob is in for a shock, and uncovering Chip's real identity leads to a difficult conversation with Sam but ultimately reconciliation with his past. VERDICT The Booker Prize—shortlisted deWitt creates an endearing character in Bob Comet, who, at the age of 72, and after a lifetime of low expectations, finds life's answers and the friends he deeply needs. This novel begs to be read.—Donna Bettencourt
Jim Meskimen presents this tribute to reading, books, and librarians. Listeners meet retired librarian Bob Comet, whose seemingly uneventful life is rich with kindness, challenges, and triumphs. Meskimen's lonely, compassionate Bob, who's lived in the same place since childhood, rescues a lost woman, returns her to her care home, and surprises himself by volunteering there. Meskimen's unhurried pace is appropriate as Bob reveals his life from age 11, when he ran away, to the recent past, when he was betrayed by his wife and best friend. Meskimen flawlessly portrays him with heartbreak and humor. Every character is relatable and endearing, particularly huge outspoken Linus from the care home, who is easily Meskimen's best creation. A deeply moving conclusion adds to this future classic. S.G.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
★ 2023-04-11
An old man’s routines are interrupted by a woman in pink in this wistful fable.
Bob Comet, a retired librarian, is 71 and has lived an unremarkable life in Portland, Oregon, in a mint-colored house that belonged to his late mother. “He had no friends, per se; his phone did not ring, and he had no family.” The year is 2005, and this dreary state of affairs stems partly from the fact that shortly after he married her in 1959, Bob’s wife ran off with his best friend. Things begin to change for the retiree when he encounters a woman about his age in a pink sweatsuit staring at the refrigerated beverages in a 7-Eleven. After he learns that she is a resident of a nearby senior center and returns her there, he makes a startling discovery. The narrative shifts to Bob in his 20s, when he becomes a librarian and meets his wife-to-be and the man who would become his best friend, before the two betrayed him. The story shifts again, to Bob at age 11, when he ran away from home and had an adventure with two eccentric women who performed elaborate stage shows. They are among the several lesser characters who provide color and light in this gray tale. DeWitt has gained a following with the black comedy of his past three novels—French Exit (2018), Undermajordomo Minor (2015), and The Sisters Brothers (2011). The new book is different, marked by the resigned melancholy surrounding Bob, a mood not always understated: “There had been whole eras of Bob’s working life where he knew a lamentation at the smallness of his existence.” He brings to mind John Williams’ Stoner and Thoreau’s chestnut about “lives of quiet desperation,” but it is telling that deWitt chooses to capture him at times when his life takes a turn.
A quietly effective and moving character study.
