DeWitt is such a brilliant writer. He has a fantastic ability to get to the heart of things but while always keep a lightness of touch and a masterful command of comedy. Genius.

A writer who never ceased to surprise and in nerve. Patrick dewitt weaves an unexpected and glorious tale.

A simple story about a man who lives through books. A slow burning, witty, and fascinating story.
I loved the style of writing and loved Bob, the main characters.
It drags a bit in the last time but it was an excellent reading experience
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Sadly, this book didn't hit the mark for me. At first it was enjoyable, with the stories about Bob & his wife and their life together, but then I just couldn't understand why the book spent so much time covering the 4-days Bob runs away for. A bit too all over the place for me, with an unsatisfactory ending also. I wish I'd enjoyed it more.

Classification of Patrick deWitt can be difficult. He is a very direct writer with a very distinct style, not borrowing from other writers. He has a knack and a skill that allows very simple prose to still be very descriptive but also has an eye for the absurd and the humorous, and indeed unerringly puts his finger right on the point where those two intersect.
This is an thought-provoking story which speaks to the perceived futility of life and the fact that what really matters to an individual, may not be what modern society deems valuable – what constitutes a life well lived? However, this potentially heavy subject is handled lightly, as would be the nature of the main character (and the author) and is told through episodes of his life and his congress with the other characters – many with much humour and all with a tenderness that speaks to the reader and indeed, may leave you a little Dewey eyed.

DeWitt used his deceptively simple and very distinctive style to great effect in his novel the Sisters Brothers, which I absolutely loved. However, this style, which I found to be very suited to an historical novel/western, in a modern context (when 'The Librarianist' is mainly set) I find is very close to cynical, or if not quite cynical then certainly stated with a nod and a wink which unfortunately, I found a little irritating at times, although I never reached to shelve the novel.
There is no doubt deWitt is a very talented writer with a definite sense of comedy and humour but I have certain reservations when it comes to his more recent novels if not leaving me cold certainly don't dispose me to feel any particular warmth. But it is still a good book and there is little doubt I will check-out his future novels.

Patrick deWitt is one of my favourite novelists working today because his previous four books were all fantastic. So The Librarianist was always going to be a must-read and one of my most anticipated novels of 2023. It’s quite disappointing then to say this was utterly terrible. It went from being one of the most anticipated to one of the biggest let-downs of the year.

There isn’t really a story, just a bunch of things that happen to the main character across certain points in his life that don’t add up to anything. Bob Comet is our main character. He’s a retired librarian who decides to help out at the local old folks’ home, curating a selection of his favourite stories to read to the residents - and then he finds out one of the residents’ identities, which holds great importance to him.

Is it a spoiler if there’s no plot to be spoiled? Anyway, I won’t reveal the character’s identity but deWitt could’ve ended the story there because nothing that follows adds to what we already know of Bob’s life and the entire final third is completely irrelevant.

For example, we’re told early on that Bob’s wife ran off with his best friend when they were all young and he never remarried. Fine - but the entire middle of the novel is the story of how this happened. And guess what? Besides fleshing out the wife and best friend, to no effect, we get to read in excruciatingly dull detail what we already know. The wife and best friend run off and get married. So what’s the point? I really don’t know.

The final third is another time jump to Bob’s childhood where he meets a pair of travelling actors and he sort of helps them in their local production. Again: what’s the point? No idea. And this is by far the most boring part of the story too and the easiest cut because it has the least to do with anything. But we get it all for no reason. What a boring waste of time!

The first act is fine, the writing throughout is decent, but the narrative overall is a meandering, go-nowhere shrug of a story. Rarely entertaining and often frustratingly tedious, I definitely don’t recommend this one whether or not you’re a fan of the author, though, if you are, you’re in for a shock that this is by the same writer who gave us great novels like Ablutions and Undermajordomo Minor. Patrick deWitt’s other novels are well worth checking out if you’ve never read him before - The Librarianist is an unexpected misfire.

Had heard good things about deWitt’s other work, French Exit, as it had been adapted into a film a couple of years ago, and this felt like another quiet tale filled with charming prose.

'Bob had long given up on the notion of knowing anyone, or of being known. He communicated with the world partly by walking through it, but mainly by reading about it.'

I was immediately attracted to this - a book about books, I thought. Fantastic. There actually isn't very much about books here, though, but what develops is a complex and deeply moving story of lost love and isolation. Very different on tone from deWitt's 'French Exit', the characters here are endearing, if a little bit curmudgeonly at times. Bob Comet finds a lost and bemused resident of a care home, and when he returns her he gradually finds himself helping out there, talking and listening to the people and their stories. When events take a surprising and emotional turn, Bob finds himself in life-changing experiences which go to prove that no matter how old you are, life can still surprise you.

Charming, moving and with an array of oddball characters, this is a wonderful and uplifting tale. 4.5 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

I was offered an advanced copy of this book from Bloomsbury and immediately started reading. Every deWitt novel is unique in genre and setting, but consistent in exploring the human condition and I am obsessed. This—this—is how you write character-driven stories.

The story focuses on Bob Comet at various points in his life. As an old man making friends with residents of a care home, as a young man getting married and having his heart broken, as a young boy running away from home and going on an adventure. Bob is a quiet, unassuming man with a simple, straightforward life. Yet still he has a life full of stories.

My favourite was runaway Bob. Eleven years old, sneaking onto public transport, making friends with an eccentric Thespian couple and their dogs, and learning to play a drum roll. Every character was fun and loveable and I wanted Bob to stay with them, growing up amongst so much life, creativity, and joy. Knowing he didn’t made that section of the story bittersweet.

I struggled most with young, married man Bob. Again, knowing how the story ended made reading it painful. And it hurt because the connection and relationships Bob has with Ethan and Connie were clearly so genuine and deep, and we’re seeing those develop while also seeing the pieces of how it all falls apart slip into place. It was exquisite storytelling that broke my own heart along with Bob’s.

What brings the story—Bob’s life—together, though, is the present day sections that bookend the others. The lessons learnt in his life, how they brought him to where he is now, gave him the ability to embrace the people and the opportunities crossing his path. How to let himself be happy.

Every person we meet, even the ones that only appear briefly and have only a few lines, have an immense amount of character. Everyone feels so unapologetically themselves, and I just flipping adore that so much. I feel it’s what deWitt truly excels at, and the thing that makes me want to live inside one of his books.

There were a couple of moments in the book that literally brought me to tears. A couple more that made me gasp in shock. But overwhelmingly this book made me laugh. I laughed so much, out loud, and without shame. Undoubtedly, the biggest laugh I had came at the very end of the book, leaving me cackling with joy and cementing the five stars I gave it.

This is the story of retired librarian Bob Comet, who loves alone in Portland, Oregon and is “not unhappy” with his lot. Since retiring from the public library where he spent his whole career, and still living in the house he once shared with his mother, his life has been a solitary one, in which he communicates with the world primarily through books. A quiet life, a regular life, a contented life. But then one day a chance encounter in a local supermarket opens up a whole new world to Bob and he finds not only a community that needs him but one which he needed without realising it. The second section of the book jumps back half a century in time and we see Bob getting his job at the library and meeting the love of his life, whilst the third section goes back even further into the past to show us Bob at age eleven. We then come back to the present day. It’s a gentle book, a story of common decency, of a life of routine and structure, a placid, indeed a passive life, but one with occasional richness. Gentle humour here as well, with a cast of often quirky characters, all of whom do their best with the hand fate has dealt them. I loved this book. It’s funny, poignant and above all human. A great read.

What a beautifully told story of Monsieur Bob Comet, a retired introverted librarian who loves a quiet life with his books and his freedom to read them until a serendipitous discovery intervenes. His history is revealed slowly in a reverse time-line of 4 eras. deWitt has an wonderful way with words.

It’s a love letter to readers and libraries and a reminder to never judge a book by its cover.
Marvellous stuff.

Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

This book is about the life of Bob Comet. He is a retired librarian who walks around his community and comes across an elderly lady who he returns to her senior living home. He makes friends with a member of staff, Maria and starts to volunteer, thinking he can read to the residents.

There are four main parts to this story. The first tells of the incident described above. The second tells of Bob's early adult life, his marriage to Connie and friendship with Ethan, along with his working life in the library. Then we go back in time to his childhood, when he runs away from home, aged 11. Finally, the book is wrapped up with the story of Bob aged in his seventies and what happens after he came across the elderly lady, lost in a local supermarket.

This is a gentle story, told with lots of reflection and a constant undercurrent of humour. The writing is great and there are so many sentences that you just want to lift and quote in a review. My favourite was to do with reading instead of living, something like 'do you read rather than live'. It made me think about my own love of books - am I reading rather than living?

There is a cast of characters throughout and they are all very different. I loved Mrs Ogilvie in the library and the strict way she ran things including her now old fashioned insistence for silence! The reflective quality of the writing makes you think about human characteristics and how we present ourselves as different people.

I didn't enjoy the story of 11 year old Bob quite so much. It was an interesting backdrop, but I thought at times the emphasis switched to Ida and June and was less about Bob. It is only this that made me rate the book as 4 star rather than five.

Overall, this is a very readable tale, which I highly recommend. Many thanks to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Bob Comet is a character who attracted some curiosity, and his interactions with the residents of the care home were the stronger sections in this story. The musings from his past were at times jarring and seemed out of place, in particular the chapters from his childhood. I was lured in with the iconic image of the cover, and the contents didn’t have a strong enough connection with me as it has had with other reviewers. In fact, I think this would've made a good short story or novella.

Overall, it was an uneven novel that left me underwhelmed and a bit nonplussed.

DeWitt going towards the ultimate goal.

What makes a good story, the elements within or the teller? I lean more towards the teller. A good teller is able to bring the simplest story to life, is able to turn it around and examine its elements going deep and deeper if he wants, showing what makes up the whole, the nuances, the consequences.

DeWitt does this, he has a simple story, a life, to some it might be quite a mediocre life, but it isn't. He examines that life and highlights and weaves and sees and while he is seeing he shows us because that is what we want with stories, we want to see, to understand, to connect and while connecting we feel seen too and that is the ultimate goal. We are seen, we exist.

An ARC kindly given by author/publisher via Netgalley

This is the story of retired librarian, Bob Comet who, after a chance encounter in his local supermarket finds a community who need him - and who, in turn, he comes to need. Infused with deWitt’s trademark humour and exuberant characters, this is an exploration of a life lived by routines and structure, at times a life shared, at times a life alone. Moving backwards through time, only to circle back to Bob’s present day, deWitt unearths the deeper feelings beneath a controlled exterior. Utterly brilliant.

This is a lovely story about Bob, a retired Librarian, who finds himself volunteering at a home for the elderly. Along the way we find out about Bob's life, including what happened to him when he ran away from home, how he became a Librarian and how he fell in love. A mostly sweet and cosy story with a few sad or bitter sweet moments. A fantastic, engrossing read with wonderful characters.

I was engrossed in Bob’s story from the start, it was a book outside my comfort zone but still I thoroughly enjoyed reading his story

This is a quiet book about a quiet man. The story unfolds slowly and beautifully. It is a pure pleasure to read. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a quiet weekend to themselves and has time to indulge themselves with a book. Time to savour the language and read the story of an unremarkable man who in the end turns out to be quite remarkable.

“Why do you read rather than live?”

A pean to the profession of librarianship may not immediately engage the interest of the average reviewer on here, but be assured dear reader, that you don’t have to be a book lover to appreciate De Witt’s character-driven, wryly humorous narration and inspired dialogue, reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut’s style.

Admittedly, as an ex-librarian myself, I was immediately immersed in this tale of an unassuming introvert’s ‘life of the mind’ - which turns out to be far more unexpectedly eventful than one might envisage - and which constantly involves empathy with the main character.
This is the 5th novel (and the second one I’ve read) by this author and I fully recommend it.

I enjoyed my time with Bob Comet, the titular Librarianist very much and was sad when his story came to a close. It's very hard to write a review that goes into much detail without ruining the story, but I particularly enjoyed the parts set in 2005-6 and in the 1960s. The jump back to 1945 left me somewhat nonplussed at first, particularly as it left a thread hanging that I was hoping would be resolved, but this was just the author's way of building the anticipation and giving us a greater insight into Bob's character and there was some great writing in this section.

I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Bloomsbury Publishing via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.