- Patrick deWitt has the ability to dissect the personal and social lives of ordinary people and bring them vividly to life. There are no big heroes or villains or any characters outside the ordinary. This is what enriches his novels and makes them utterly enthralling.
- In the just released The Librarianist we're taken to two time periods: 2005-2006 and 1942-1960.
- Bob Comet has been an avid reader since his childhood days. We spend time with him as a young boy who's run away from home, and as an old retiree looking for involvement and meaning. His marriage didn't last and he has no children. But he is a kind, intelligent man whom neighbours notice and love. His career was as a librarian.
- We meet the people he gets to know through the different stages of his life and they are of course delightful. DeWitt adopts a style of prose which is deliberately old-fashioned. It's a stiff and formal, proper English idiom which heightens the delightfulness of the characters' exchanges and humour. Many of them are sensitive to all sorts of things, even moody and peevish, and prejudiced, but essentially they're kind and supportive.
- We are celebrating the simplicity of joy. I loved this novel and highly recommend it, especially to those of you starting to experience the fragility of old age!
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