The Librarianist

Contemporary fiction spans several genres, including literary fiction. This mainstay of fiction is rooted in the creation and rise of the novel itself, which grew in popularity in the 19th century. At this time, writers like Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, and Jane Austen helped popularize literary novels. Many of them were published serially, meaning chapters were released gradually, like episodes of modern-day television programs.

As the name implies, literary fiction focuses on plausible scenarios that are true-to-life, rather than the imaginative worlds of fantasy, horror, or science fiction. It is character-driven, meaning that the inner lives and struggles of the characters are what create momentum and meaning in the narrative. The character’s unique person, including their flaws, are shaped by their race, culture, family, and other societal forces. Plot and action is secondary to how the characters feel, what they believe, how they interact with the world, and how they are impacted by the circumstances that unfold in the narrative. Structure, too, can be highly important to realistic fiction and innovative managing of time—including non-linear elements of narrative or foreshadowing and flashback—are not uncommon. In addition, the writing style, language, word choice, and sentence rhythm are important tools by which the writer creates atmosphere and tension, and conveys character (Woodson, Michael “What is Literary Fiction?” Writer’s Digest, 2023).

The Librarianist, further, not only exemplifies realistic fiction but a sub-set of it that focuses on books themselves. The “book about a book” trope became popular in the 20th century, with well-known examples including Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (which challenges censorship efforts); Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (which contains the text of a book within the novel itself); and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief (which addresses Nazi book burning during World War II). One draw of books and reading as a subject matter is that speaks directly to the actual reader’s interest. Acknowledging and honoring this pastime becomes a means to create a connection between the reader and the novel’s characters, as deWitt sets out to do by creating Bob Comet—a retired librarian for whom books and reading are the most important element of his existence. A novel that takes on the task of books as its subject matter, then, is keenly Postmodern—a literary movement in which the subject matter is traditionally the process of making art to probe the value of art itself and examine the utility of art for art’s sake. Other popular novels about books in the 20th and 21st century include R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface (2023); Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind (2001); Jason Mott’s Hell of a Book (2021); Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library (2020); and Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2014).