Patrick Dewitt knows how to capture quiet characters and he does it again in his new novel, The Librarianist. Newly retired librarian Bob Comet has lived alone most of his adult life in the same house that he grew up in. He loves books, and even if his life was not exciting, working among them every day was satisfying. Now without the library he finds his days long and unstructured until he wanders into a lost woman who he returns to the local senior center. He begins to volunteer there and finds a place among the awkward community that lives and works there. Dewitt then fills in some of Bob’s backstory with the heartbreak of his young marriage and chapters recounting a strange few days when Bob ran away from home as a child. The Librianist is an interesting book that highlights Dewitt’s odd sense of humor and excellent writing while telling the story of a reserved life and how it became that way.

The story is about Bob Comet. A retired librarian who loved his job, living a simple life surrounded by books, living in the same house he shared with his deceased mother and driving the same car she did. A chance encounter with a lost stranger, seemingly suffering from dementia, leads him to volunteer at an assisted living senior center.In subsequent chapters, we learn of his early life-an awkward introvert without friends who sought refuge in books, one great love that ended in divorce, an extroverted friend exactly opposite in personality who betrayed him,and his one great adventure-running away from home and encountering a hilarious group of characters.
Without giving away too much,in the final chapter Bob, now living in the center surrounded by other strange friends, does something so completely out of character that you will laugh and find touching, and most importantly, you will cheer him on.
I enjoyed the read immensely.

This novel is soft in the most lovely ways. Of course, it’s also brimming with deWitt’s signature wit and humor. Telling the story if this, ordinary person, the reader understands how none of us is ordinary and we’re all bubbling with stories of our humanity. I LOVED thus book and devoured it quickly. Also a-precasted the characterization of aging, with richly drawn characters that are complicated and not depicted in a sentimental way, due to their age.