The Librarianist
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Jim Meskimen
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By:
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Patrick deWitt
About this listen
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
From bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes the story of Bob Comet, a man who has lived his life through and for literature, unaware that his own experience is a poignant and affecting narrative in itself.
Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he’s known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.
Behind Bob Comet’s straight-man façade is the story of an unhappy child’s runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian’s vocation, and of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob’s experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life.
With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert’s condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity.
©2023 Patrick deWitt (P)2023 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have heard before.
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This book sucked the life out of me
- By RMan on 08-08-22
By: Gabrielle Zevin
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French Exit
- A Novel
- By: Patrick deWitt
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Frances Price - tart widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature - is in dire straits, beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there’s the Price’s aging cat, Small Frank, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts. Putting penury and pariahdom behind them, the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit.
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deWitt deLivers Eccentric Quirky Characters
- By Liberty on 09-23-18
By: Patrick deWitt
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Undermajordomo Minor
- A Novel
- By: Patrick deWitt
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for producing brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts employment assisting the Majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux.
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Sometimes a train is just a train
- By Darwin8u on 09-21-15
By: Patrick deWitt
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The Great Unexpected
- By: Dan Mooney
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Joel lives in a nursing home, and he’s not one bit happy about it. He hates being told when to eat, when to sleep, when to take his pills. He’s fed up with life and begins to plan a way out when his new roommate, a retired soap opera actor named Frank, moves in and turns the nursing-home community upside down.
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Really enjoyed this
- By Carmen K. Pollic on 04-10-23
By: Dan Mooney
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The Sisters Brothers
- A Novel
- By: Patrick deWitt
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for. With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western....
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The Cruelty To Animals is Hard to Take
- By Leslie on 07-22-12
By: Patrick deWitt
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Ablutions
- By: Patrick DeWitt
- Narrated by: Patrick Dewitt
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a famous but declining Hollywood bar works A Barman. Morbidly amused by the decadent decay of his surroundings, he watches the patrons fall into their nightly oblivion, making notes for his novel. In the hope of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with the cast of variously pathological regulars.
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A fuzzy, high-energy migrane of a novel.
- By Darwin8u on 10-08-12
By: Patrick DeWitt
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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
- A Novel
- By: Gabrielle Zevin
- Narrated by: Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have heard before.
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This book sucked the life out of me
- By RMan on 08-08-22
By: Gabrielle Zevin
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French Exit
- A Novel
- By: Patrick deWitt
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frances Price - tart widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature - is in dire straits, beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there’s the Price’s aging cat, Small Frank, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts. Putting penury and pariahdom behind them, the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit.
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deWitt deLivers Eccentric Quirky Characters
- By Liberty on 09-23-18
By: Patrick deWitt
-
Undermajordomo Minor
- A Novel
- By: Patrick deWitt
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for producing brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts employment assisting the Majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux.
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Sometimes a train is just a train
- By Darwin8u on 09-21-15
By: Patrick deWitt
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The Great Unexpected
- By: Dan Mooney
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joel lives in a nursing home, and he’s not one bit happy about it. He hates being told when to eat, when to sleep, when to take his pills. He’s fed up with life and begins to plan a way out when his new roommate, a retired soap opera actor named Frank, moves in and turns the nursing-home community upside down.
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Really enjoyed this
- By Carmen K. Pollic on 04-10-23
By: Dan Mooney
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The Sisters Brothers
- A Novel
- By: Patrick deWitt
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for. With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western....
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The Cruelty To Animals is Hard to Take
- By Leslie on 07-22-12
By: Patrick deWitt
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Ablutions
- By: Patrick DeWitt
- Narrated by: Patrick Dewitt
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In a famous but declining Hollywood bar works A Barman. Morbidly amused by the decadent decay of his surroundings, he watches the patrons fall into their nightly oblivion, making notes for his novel. In the hope of uncovering their secrets and motives, he establishes tentative friendships with the cast of variously pathological regulars.
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A fuzzy, high-energy migrane of a novel.
- By Darwin8u on 10-08-12
By: Patrick DeWitt
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We
- A Novel
- By: Yevgeny Zamyatin
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey, Margaret Atwood, Toby Jones
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
In a glass-enclosed city of perfectly straight lines, ruled over by an all-powerful “Benefactor”, the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState are regulated by spies and secret police; wear identical clothing; and are distinguished only by a number assigned to them at birth. That is, until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. He can feel things. He can fall in love. And, in doing so, he begins to dangerously veer from the norms of his society, becoming embroiled in a plot to destroy OneState and liberate the city.
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Truly perfection
- By Blake Burkholder on 08-30-22
By: Yevgeny Zamyatin
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October in the Earth
- A Novel
- By: Olivia Hawker
- Narrated by: Jackie Zebrowski
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Del Wensley, wife of the most celebrated preacher in Harlan County, tries to mind her place. Until her husband’s infidelity pushes an already strained marriage to a breaking point. Clinging to her last hope for self-respect, Del turns her back on the rigid life she’s known. A coal train is rolling through the valley. With her eyes wide open to the unfamiliar, and to the freedom she craves, Del takes to the rails.
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Remarkable and Well-Done
- By Kentucky Bohemian on 01-07-24
By: Olivia Hawker
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Hands of Time
- A Watchmaker’s History
- By: Rebecca Struthers
- Narrated by: Anna Ploszajski
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Timepieces have long accompanied us on our travels, from the depths of the oceans to the summit of Everest, the ice of the arctic to the sands of the deserts, outer space to the surface of the moon. The watch has sculpted the social and economic development of modern society; it is an object that, when disassembled, can give us new insights both into the motivations of inventors and craftsmen of the past, and, into the lives of the people who treasured them.
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Very interesting, while it was about clocks.
- By Nicholas Conrad on 07-05-23
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Things in Jars
- A Novel
- By: Jess Kidd
- Narrated by: Jacqueline Milne
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Bridie Devine - flame-haired, pipe-smoking detective extraordinaire - is confronted with the most baffling puzzle yet: the kidnapping of Christabel Berwick, secret daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick, and a peculiar child whose reputed supernatural powers have captured the unwanted attention of collectors in this age of discovery. Winding her way through the sooty streets of Victorian London, Bridie won’t rest until she finds the young girl, even if it means unearthing secrets about her past that she’d rather keep buried.
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I Don't Often Say This, But...
- By Kentucky Bohemian on 08-08-20
By: Jess Kidd
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The Dakota Winters
- A Novel
- By: Tom Barbash
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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An evocative and wildly absorbing novel about the Winters, a family living in New York City’s famed Dakota apartment building in the year leading up to John Lennon’s assassination.
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Wonderful reading,love John Lennon as a character
- By Aileen on 12-13-18
By: Tom Barbash
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The Air Raid Book Club
- A Novel
- By: Annie Lyons
- Narrated by: Jilly Bond
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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London, 1938: The bookstore just doesn’t feel the same to Gertie Bingham ever since the death of her beloved husband Harry. Bingham Books was a dream they shared together, and without Harry, Gertie wonders if it’s time to take her faithful old lab, Hemingway, and retire to the seaside. But fate has other plans for Gertie. In Germany, Hitler is on the rise, and Jewish families are making the heart-wrenching decision to send their children away from the growing turmoil. After a nudge from her dear friend Charles, Gertie decides to take in one of these refugees.
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An amazing Author brought to life amazing characters. Thanks to my Book Club’s Oct ‘23 Hostess for choosing.
- By Jean Nisbet on 09-17-23
By: Annie Lyons
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The Butterfly and the Violin
- A Hidden Masterpiece Novel
- By: Kristy Cambron
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Present day: Manhattan art dealer Sera James watched her world crumble at the altar two years ago, and her heart is still fragile. Her desire for distraction reignites a passion for a mysterious portrait she first saw as a young girl—a painting of a young violinist with piercing blue eyes. In her search for the painting, Sera crosses paths with William Hanover—the grandson of a wealthy California real estate mogul—who may be the key to uncovering the hidden masterpiece.
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great story line but....
- By M. Gail Davis on 05-20-22
By: Kristy Cambron
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Hungry Ghosts
- A Novel
- By: Kevin Jared Hosein
- Narrated by: Don Warrington
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Trinidad in the 1940s, nearing the end of American occupation and British colonialism. On a hill overlooking Bell Village sits the Changoor farm, where Dalton and Marlee Changoor live in luxury unrecognizable to those who reside in the farm’s shadow. Down below is the Barrack, a ramshackle building of wood and tin, divided into rooms occupied by whole families. Among these families are the Saroops—Hans, Shweta, and their son, Krishna, all three born of the barracks.
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Gave up
- By Kirk A Mann on 08-29-23
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Women We Buried, Women We Burned
- A Memoir
- By: Rachel Louise Snyder
- Narrated by: Rachel Louise Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Snyder was eight years old when her mother died, and her distraught father thrust the family into an evangelical, cult-like existence halfway across the country. Furiously rebellious, she was expelled from school and home at age sixteen. Living out of her car and relying on strangers, Rachel found herself masquerading as an adult, talking her way into college, and eventually traveling the globe.
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Excellent!
- By mindovermatter65 on 06-18-23
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The Royal Windsor Secret
- A Novel
- By: Christine Wells
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Cleo Davenport has heard the whispers: the murmured conversations that end abruptly the second she walks into a room. Told she was an orphan, she knows the rumor—that her father is none other than the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. And at her childhood home at Cairo’s Shepheard’s Hotel, where royals, rulers, and the wealthy live, they even called her “The Princess.” But her life is turned upside down when she turns seventeen. Sent to London under the chaperonage of her very proper aunt, she’s told it’s time to learn manners and make her debut.
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Slow start- a wonderful journey in the end
- By Sailormommy on 01-06-24
By: Christine Wells
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The Forgotten Names
- A Tale of Heroism and Reclaiming Identity in Nazi-Occupied France
- By: Mario Escobar
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Five years after the highly publicized trial of Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon,” law student Valérie Portheret began her doctoral research into the 108 children who disappeared from Vénissieux fifty years earlier, children who somehow managed to escape deportation and certain death in the German concentration camps. She soon discovers that their rescue was no unexplainable miracle.
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Heartbreaking and Heartwarming
- By K. on 10-11-24
By: Mario Escobar
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The Coast Road
- A Novel
- By: Alan Murrin
- Narrated by: Jessica Regan
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in 1994, The Coast Road tells the story of two women—Izzy Keaveney, a housewife, and Colette Crowley, a poet. Colette has left her husband and sons for a married man in Dublin. When she returns to her home in County Donegal to try to pick up the pieces of her old life, her husband, Shaun, a successful businessman, denies her access to her children.
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Fabulous
- By Suzanna on 06-13-24
By: Alan Murrin
What listeners say about The Librarianist
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kristyn Rose
- 02-02-24
Slow to start but worth the wait!
I had trouble getting into this book, at first. I even had to restart it a couple of chapters in because it felt like I was missing something. The story seemed to meander for a little while, but the mixture of personalities was really interesting. Then, a little twist came, and it really took off! Sometimes, you’ll laugh out loud and other times it will break your heart. But it’s a very satisfying read.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jane
- 07-25-23
Loved this book.
Clear, visual writing with wonderful characters and story line. Just right.
Eager to read/listen to more of Patrick deWitt’s novels.
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- Susan Peters
- 11-18-24
Emotionally satisfying
Lovely story. Simple yet still tugged on my heart strings. Highly recommend. I feel like I know all these characters.
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- Barbara S
- 07-09-23
An entertaining audio
I was a huge fan of author Patrick deWitt’s “French Exit”. His newly released story, “The Librarianist” is a hoot and a half. The reason to read it? It’s deWitt’s oddball and eccentric characters and their observations that populate this story. I double dog dare you to read this without unwavering amusement in the form of chuckling.
deWitt’s Librarianist is Bob Comet, who is 71 when the story begins, and a retired librarian. He lives in his childhood home, a mint green number in Portland Oregon. Bob loves books and the quiet life it allows. On a. walk, Bob chances upon a woman at a 7-Eleven who has been staring at the refrigerated section of energy drinks for close to an hour, much to the dismay of the clerk. The woman is a resident at a Senior Citizen Center as indicated by her name tag; Bob returns her to the home and asks if he can volunteer reading to the residents. Bob’s volunteer attempt is met with derision by the inmates. He probably shouldn’t have led with Edgar Allan Poe and Russian Literature.
deWitt moves the story from the current, 2006, to 1942, when we learn of Bob’s early interest in the library. He was in high school when he determined he wanted to become a librarian. It was at his first librarian job that he met his wife Connie and his best friend Ethan. We learn early that Ethan and Connie betray Ethan. This event defines Ethan and furthers him along a melancholy path. In fact, Bob is the epitome of loneliness.
The story picks up in much needed silliness when deWitt has Bob flashback to another defining event in his life which occurred in 1945. Bob went on the lam; yes, he ran away from home at the age of 11. He finds his way on a train that takes him to the Hotel Elba where he meets Jane and Ida, two thespians. Here, deWitt has great fun with the word…thespians.
Bob is an introverted loner, but he does make some connections once he volunteers at the Senior Center. I was charmed by the story in the same way that I was charmed by Ruth Ozeki’s “The Book of Form and Emptiness”. Both stories are sad and life affirming at the same time. It’s the cleverness of prose that is the reason for reading the story. One must experience reading deWitt to appreciate his abilities at reflecting the absurd.
I listened to the audio, narrated by Jim Meskimen. I did end up changing the reading speed to 1.2x. I enjoyed Meskimen’s interpretations of the differing voices.
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8 people found this helpful
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- SA
- 08-31-24
It was ok
It was okay. There was a weird flashback in the middle of the book, I think to help drag out the story. It was so boring I had to skip 4 chapters. It was interesting in parts and had a lot of potential. But overall I wouldn’t recommend it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Regina
- 01-06-24
Wonderful Listen
A new author to me, Ill look for others of his work. Charming, funny, insightful and heartbreaking. Well written, wonderful characters suffering the human condition and the damage done long before we meet. The story starts slowly and ends with little fanfare. It is an existence observed.
Excellent narration as well
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3 people found this helpful
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- KSK5
- 09-12-23
A deeply meaningful and quirky narrative.
I found the novel quite absorbing.
With many poignant moments. I laughed quite a lot But also became quite absorbed in the characters especially bob. The narration was wonderful. I will explore more of the books of this author.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Palo Verde
- 03-03-24
Just a good old comfortable story!
I loved this book. The narration starts off flat, initially detracting from the story, but stick with it. At some point the narrator becomes more animated and the story moves forward with vivid imagery. A tale to be told.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 01-26-24
I loved everything about this book!
Usually I choose nonfiction over fiction but for some reason I took the leap and was so pleased I did. The narrator was so well matched to the voices of the story which was so unique and yet so realistically human, including Bob’s runaway story as a boy which brought back memories of my own runaway story. A truly enjoyable read from beginning to end and character to character. I will come back to Patrick’s writing again.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Dennis
- 07-30-24
Melancholy and moving
A very moving story of aging, disappointment, and scattered happiness. As each new segment began, I had to give the story a rest, to settle my emotions.
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1 person found this helpful