The Borrower

There is just too much in this book, and also I think a bit too little. Let's start with the too much. The writing style suffers from an abundance of the narrator's meandering thoughts and conjectures. Like most people the narrator (Lucy) has numerous false starts before she says (or doesn't say) something, but here we are given free access to these stumbles; way too much information. Furthermore, Lucy spins out endless scenarios of what other characters may be doing, which bogs down the flow because the author never does anything with these thoughts, just lets them pile up. A character's conjecturing is like highlights in your hair - best when used sparingly and with careful placement, otherwise it's a hot mess. And speaking of meandering conjectures, Lucy does a lot - A LOT - of this about herself. And here it would generally work because she is on the run, and imaging the outcomes of various actions is logical. (view spoiler)[But here's where the too much starts to overlap with the too little: we have pages and pages and pages devoted to Lucy's meandering conjectures about what she could do, but she barely does anything at all! She just keeps driving, and aside from stops in Chicago and Pittsburgh this driving is completely aimless. The contrast between her overabundant imaginings and her complete lack of action is perhaps intentional, but it does not make for good reading. So Lucy's inaction brings us to the heart of the too little portion. Lucy AT NO POINT asks Ian why he is running away! They are together a week, most of that time alone in a car, and she never asks him! She assumes she knows why, but even so a real person would still ask a child for an explanation, would try to talk about it again and again until there was some clarity. It makes no sense at all, and when I realized that she was never going to ask him about his reasons, well, for me the book shattered. There were some bright spots in the book, to be sure. First, I really liked the idea that a kid can force an adult into uncomfortable/dangerous/illegal actions and situations by threatening to lie about the adult to authorities. Kids actually have a lot of power over adults, and this explored that dynamic in an interesting way. Second, I liked the literary allusions and poems the author sprinkles throughout; they were fun and made me smile. Third, I liked that the author took on the damaging (and illegal) practice of " reprogramming" gay and lesbian people to become heterosexual. She does a pretty good job of creating a fun, interesting, smart, happy child whose parents are trying to break him to fit into a specific mold that matches their religion, and to show what can be lost if they succeed. I LOVE that she specifically talks about how the Bible's prohibition against homosexuality is in the same sentence as a prohibition against eating shellfish, which is in itself sandwiched among rules about menstruation and crop rotation, and all the latter are freely ignored in modern Western society while the former is used to justify every conceivable physical and psychological torture. We need more contemporary, popular novels that unmask this dangerous hypocrisy, although hopefully better written. (hide spoiler)]

Rebecca Makkai can certainly turn a phrase. Much of the book contains an inner dialogue our librarian protagonist is having with herself, and many of her lines made me laugh out loud. I would think: "I LOVE this author....I must read everything she has ever written!!! However, her story does seem to get bogged down in the middle. I'll definitely give her another shot, though. Love her style.

The book found me in a small bookshop in Santa Cruz, recommended by the staff. Not that it’s surprising that bookshop staff will recommend a book about a librarian. Or that they will recommend a book telling an obviously fictional story, in which books save lives or at least make them a little better.

I enjoyed this quick read more than a 3-star review really suggests, though it didn't feel like a 4-star book to me in the end. The premise of the story, or at least the irresponsible way the main character plunges forward, seemed pretty implausible, but then the book is to some degree embracing this, as it is a book about stories and how they're made (even if implausible, as many of the best are) and what in them appeals to us. So I was able to suspend disbelief and annoyance and enjoy the other main character and the different story modes the author adopted as she wrote this story about stories. I liked it, a fair bit -- but didn't love it.