The Librarianist

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Bob Comet

The protagonist, Bob, is a recently retired senior citizen when the novel opens. He is regimented and particular, living each day so that it is the same as the previous one through his carefully established routine. This routine involves walking his neighborhood and reading. Fastidious and risk-averse, Bob is a polite and quiet person whose life appears to have been ordinary and mundane. The novel stresses that throughout various phases of his life, Bob has had difficulty connecting with other people. It is through books and reading that he finds meaning, and spending time with other people is a task he regards as pointless.

Bob thrives in his role as a librarian because it provides him with proximity to books and limits social interaction. What social interaction he is required to do is done in association with books, thus Bob is comfortable with such exchanges. A major turning point in his life comes about after meeting both Connie and Ethan. Never had Bob imagined that anyone would find him interesting and want to spend time with him. He regards himself as absent of charisma and fairly dull. On the contrary, Connie suggests he has interesting thoughts, and she enjoys his kind and quirky nature. Both his relationship with his wife and his connection to his best friend are fraught with insecurity—Bob is certain that Connie will find Ethan a more appealing match than him and lives his adult life ruled by the fear that she will leave him for Ethan. This fear is so strong that Bob takes steps to prevent their meeting. When the inevitable happens, Bob is shaken but quietly accepts the truth.

Much of Bob’s inner struggle throughout the novel involves his sadness and regret over Connie’s ending of their marriage. Both Connie and Ethan were essential people in his adult life, and the loss of them changes Bob. Despite his reluctance to form connections, he has come to understand that human connection is a necessity. His time at Gambell-Reed Senior Center—first as a volunteer and then as a resident—ultimately proves to him that connecting with other people is what brings about a fulfilling and enriching life. Bob changes by the end of the novel as he welcomes this notion and thus flourishes as his life enters its final phase.

Connie (Coleman) Comet Augustine

Bob Comet’s wife lies at the heart of the conflict Bob faces throughout much of the novel. She is 20 when they meet at the library, and she strikes Bob as demure and quiet—an identity she wears solely because her zealous father demands subservience and silence. She has learned to blend into the background and to not have opinions nor aspirations. In this way, her invisibility is a trait with which Bob identifies. Her father demands she wear a cloak in order to cover herself, symbolic of the way he wishes for her to exist only to fulfill his own needs. Connie’s first act of defiance comes when she takes out a library card, a violation of her fathers’ mandates.

As Connie and Bob get to know one another, Connie’s true personality begins to creep out: she is cheery and quirky, like Bob, and eager to learn obscure details about his life and preferences, which no one has ever before taken an interest in. She is upbeat and eager to live life to its fullest once the death of her father brings about the freedom to be whomever she pleases. She is caring and sociable, with a warmth that draws others to her and causes Bob to fear that he will never be able to keep Connie’s affections permanently. Indeed, it becomes clear to him that she and Ethan are identical in all aspects of their personalities and sensibilities and, when Connie leaves Bob for Ethan, her action proves the ultimate betrayal to Bob. She shifts, as her affections for Ethan develop, away from being light-hearted and affectionate around Bob to being evasive and even moody. Aside from a letter that goes ignored by Bob, she never contacts him again following the divorce.

Bob, however, never forgets Connie, and this lack of closure nags at him subconsciously until he learns of Connie’s identity as “Chip,” an elderly woman suffering from a brain injury. Chip is a far contrast from the upbeat and engaging person Bob once knew. Her life has changed dramatically due to this mental decline and, in the end, she and Bob become foils again, though each one reverses his or her position, with Bob becoming the sociable one and Connie unable to connect with other people.

Ethan Augustine

Bob’s unlikely best friend, Ethan, is an instant foil. Where Bob is reserved and orderly, Ethan is carefree and unconcerned about the potential consequences of his rudderless lifestyle. Unlike Bob, Ethan is unsettled, directionless, and uncertain as to what his life’s purpose is. He lives day to day with little thought to planning for his future. It becomes clear to Bob that Ethan is fraught with charm and charisma and that this has been a boon, allowing Ethan to float through life unfettered, without any true responsibilities or sense of duty to contribute something meaningful to the world around him. Thus, their pairing is an unlikely one, but Ethan quickly gloms on to Bob after Bob aids him in avoiding an apparent murder attempt. Further, Ethan is impressed at how Bob intuits the exact book that will appeal to him—Crime and Punishment—and this cements Ethan’s permanent trust in Bob. Importantly, Ethan is attractive and sociable and his personable nature easily draws women to him. His numerous flings, however, are just that—Ethan shows no interest in forming meaningful connections with the women he engages with. This changes, however, when Bob and Connie’s relationship grows serious. Ethan’s swift engagement to Eileen (despite his insistence that the marriage proposal was a mere joke), suggests that Ethan desires to have the kind of meaningful partnership that Bob shares with Connie. It is ironic, then, that Bob, who is awkward and odd, should be the one to attract someone as personable and desirable as Connie.

Ethan’s friendship with Bob is a central component of Bob’s life, and thus Ethan “stealing” Connie’s affections represents the ultimate betrayal for Bob. Despite this, Bob blames himself for his lack of charm more than he blames Ethan or Connie for their disloyalty or infidelity. Ethan attempts to reach out to Bob by letter following Bob and Connie’s divorce, but Bob ignores him. Ethan’s sudden death leads Bob to wonder if Connie will return to him, but she does not.