6. The Borrower, Rebecca Makkai
Two great books in a row!
The Borrower is a little bit Lolita, a little bit every children’s book ever, even a little bit Swamplandia!. It’s the story of a young librarian, Lucy, who kidnaps (or, more accurately, is kidnapped by) a ten-year-old boy, Ian, who frequents her library. They travel across the country, stopping in Chicago and Pittsburg and Vermont, running from their respective lives.
Lucy narrates her story much the way Humbert Humbert narrated his, presenting it as though to a jury. Her crimes aren’t sexual or predatory, there’s no premeditation to the kidnapping and she tells you right from the beginning that she wasn’t charged with anything. I subsequently tore through the book, trying to figure out how she wormed her way out of trouble.
But as much as it’s an adventure story, and a bit of a bildungsroman, The Borrower is a book about books. About the roles they play, the ways they can save your life. Lucy is a 26 year old librarian who’s terrified of falling into a librarian cliché. Ian is a flamboyant 10 year old with strict Christian parents. And they both love books.
The novel itself loves books, children’s books especially. Chapters flit in and out of the prose styles of Eric Carle, Margaret Wise Brown, Laura Numeroff… There are references to Charlotte’s Web and The Hobbit and Matilda and The Borrowers and Where the Red Fern Grows. The pages run over with these references, I’m sure there were plenty I didn’t catch. These aren’t the books that Ian’s mother would approve of (“books with the breath of God in them,” she requests), but the books that will give him a place to hide when the world won’t accept him the way he is.
It’s a beautifully written book, and very fast paced. It’s the sort of book that was torture to sit next to at work yesterday, knowing I had to wait before I could pick it up again. And that’s always a good sign.
