Librarians in literature: Passing on (Penelope Lively)

A Penelope Lively was my next choice for a book about a librarian from the bibliography of librarians that I read earlier in the year. (Actually, I've read 3 more since I last posted about one, but need to do a catch-up post on them!). It was a somewhat depressing book, and rather ill-timed with me reading it, as it dealt with an unmarried brother and sister, Edward and Helen, coming to terms with the death of their rather manipulative mother. It didn't actually talk much about Helen's part-time job at the library, but there was this lovely passage about Helen's love of books and choice of career.

"Helen read a great deal. The feel of a book in her hands was an ancient solace - not, originally, because of what lay between the covers, but as a screen, a defence, a shield. The book she was reading had once been the physical barrier between her and her mother "head in a book as usual," Dorothy would say with contempt. "You should be doing something, not just sitting there. Helen had drawn Edward into this sheltered place, and read aloud to him. And presently, what was within the books became significant also - quite small books would do, she discovered, because of what they said, one did not always have to get behind Bartholemew's atlas or the bound volumes of Punch that lurked in the bottom of the sitting room bookcase. She read her way through what was in the house - not a daunting process, given her mother's resistance to the printed work - and then resorted to libraries. Her choice of occipation, she realised had perhaps been fore-ordained, written into the scheme of things like some genetic prescripption, laid down by her mother's inclination. Dorothy did not care for books, so Helen became a librarian"

Librarians in literature : Lewis Percy (Brookner)

The first of my librarian reads was Lewis Percy by Anita Brookner, which I selected in part because the author was familiar. I went through a bit of an Anita Brookner phase last year, until I started to find her novels a bit samey. But I had had sufficient break to enjoy this one, even if it wasn't exactly a "feel good" read.

The novel tells the story of the character Lewis Percy, an academic, who lives with his mother. We first meet him studying literature in Paris, which seems a promising start to his adult life. But on return home to his mother, and to finishing his thesis, he ends up establishing himself in a lonely, isolated existence, centring on his academic work and based in a library. His mother dies, and I think Lewis starts to feel the importance of having a woman in his life. From this somewhat depressed existence, he meets, and befriends one of the library workers, an agoraphobic girl who works in the library and lives with her mother. He decides to marry her but the marriage, which is happy to start with, soon falters. Lewis again feels lonely, and she starts struggling with being able to go out. They divorce . Lewis by now is working in the library himself; the routine is helpful but it is his nightly visits to his child which keep him going. This wouldn't make a hugely interesting story, but it is obvious that the book is being set up for something to happen - the arrival of another character who will transform his life.

As I said at the beginning, it wasn't a hugely warming read, but as usual, Brookner writes a novel that gives insight into the life of the characters that she describes; a book about people and their lives rather than anything more plot driven. And what of the librarian aspect? I have to confess I was more interested in Lewis' life and what would happen to him that I quite forgot why I was reading it in the first place!

I have my hands on several other librarian-featuring-novels now, so do look out for more posts on this theme, I think I will probably be reading the DE Stevenson, Young Clementina next, in celebration of my first ever visit to Scotland at the weekend.