The Librarian: A Novel (original 2004; edition 2004)

A political thriller with pleasant satirical overtones. A very pleasant surprise. ( )

This book was INSANELY over the top. But that's not always a bad thing. The story has a great start, but I felt the plot was rushed by the end. I guess the librarian in me wished for more talk of the collection he was archiving, but I don't see how that would have helped the slow-progressing plot.

Crazy stereotypical secret agents aside, the book did make a valuable point about the detriments of overabundant information sources:
"In the information age there is so much information that sorting and focus and giving the appropriate weight to anything have become incredibly difficult. Then some fact, or event, or factoid mysteriously captures the world's attention and there's a media frenzy [...] And everybody in the world knows everything about it. On the flip side are the Fog Facts, important things that nobody seems able to focus on any more than they can focus on a single droplet in the mist. They are known, but not known." (63)

My verdict: Good intent, not so good execution. ( )

To be a librarian...what an ideal job. Right? You work around books all day, get first dibs on checking out the ones you're interested in, you get to boss people around and tell them to be quiet. It's a low key job. There's stress, of course, but it's not life-shattering, world-building stress. So why is a dark ops division of Homeland Security trying to kill David Goldberg, the librarian of the title?

It all starts with an opportunity David has to do some moonlighting, archiving documents and personal papers for the private library of an aged billionaire land-developer. Alan Stowe, it turns out, is also a savvy long-time behind-the-scenes political mover and shaker, buying the people who buy the people who buy the candidates, and he--and a few other important people--have a lot riding on the re-election of incumbent president Augustus Winthrop Scott (who is running against a woman). David doesn't actually know anything about any of this but--as he finds out at the party built around the mating of a champion mare at Stowe's stables and the final presidential debate ("We'll make an afternoon and evening of it," Stowe says. "First we'll watch Glorious Morning put it to Angela's Star, then we'll watch The Man put it to Anne Lynn Murphy.")--somebody wants to make damn sure he doesn't find out.

And they're off. David's on the run, and if the bad guys catch him they're going to do some really nasty stuff to him. Especially once he's done his research (he is a librarian, after all) and learned just what it is nobody wants him to know...

The Librarian is smart and very funny, an action packed literary thriller that's so real you think it might actually have happened. ( )

Satisfyingly smart and fun. ( )

v funny & articulate, plot to steal presidential election ( )