The Borrower

23. March 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Fiction, Tammy · Tags: , , , ,

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai , read by Tammy on 03/22/2012

The BorrowerLucy Hull, a young children’s librarian in Hannibal, Missouri stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan from his homophobic parents.The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy’s help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother.  Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. Lucy is running away from as much or more than Ian.

There is a love of books and reading throughout this book which is quite enjoyable. How books can open new world’s to the reader and even rescue a person dealing with an overwhelming situation in their life is a wonderful message. Lucy’s relationships with Ian, her family and her friends will keep you interested but for a character who claims to be open-minded she is very preachy about her personal beliefs and why everyone else is wrong. I found the repetitive restatements of why Ian’s parents are in Lucy’s words  “completely wrong and prejudice” annoyingly ironic.

The Borrower

19. January 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Angie, Contemporary Fiction, Fiction · Tags:

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai , read by Angie on 01/16/2012

This was a fun book. It was recommended to me and I am glad it was. It is the tale of a children’s librarian named Lucy who kidnaps/is kidnapped by a 10-year old boy named Ian. They run away together on this cross-country trip from Hannibal, Missouri to Vermont. Along the way they have encounters with her Russian mafia father, her boyfriend Glenn and a variety of people. I am not sure if the journey was more of a self-discovery for Ian or Lucy but I think Lucy. She discovers more about herself and her family history. I am not sure if Ian really learns anything but atleast he gets away from his family for awhile. There is a message here about being who you are and that it is ok to be gay and books are great. All good messages and not shoved down your throat. They are told with humor and insight. I liked the characters in the book; they are quirky and fun. I have to admit that the book did start out pretty slow for me and didn’t really pick up until they hit the road, which was about 1/3-1/2 way into the book. But the story was fun and enjoyable. Not very realistic, but fun. I was a little shaky about the ending because there didn’t seem to be any consequences for either Lucy or Ian and it was just a bit too easy but overall it was a good book. I would recommend it to my library friends.