Synopsis:

Firmin is a special rat who is born in an old bookstore. Bullied by his own siblings, he has to eat the books around him in order to feed himself and not starve to death. Due to this literary diet, he turns into a literary rat who enjoys books and culture. Unfortunately for him, and the bookshopper, the store is facing its doom, for a project of urbanization is menacing the beighbourhood.

Personal opinion:

Amazing read! Despite the sad tone in which the story develops, it scores many laughs, owing to the satiric sense of humour that Firmin uses to describe life from his own point of view. From his loneliness and lack of self-esteem, he expresses his dreams and expectations in life, and his wish to love and to be loved.

Firmin, as a character, is fully three-dimensional; you come to learn his anguishes and his funny little ways. Almost everything he explains is related to literature, and all along the book we can find quotes and references to all-time classics. It's also curious to discover how, as a human being, his early learnings influence on his life and behaviour (e.g. his obsession with tagging stuff).

In my opinion, the only negative point would be the continuous pessimism that, in some chapters, can be a little annoying; but actually, as far as everything goes wrong for him (he cannot even relate to anybody successfully!), that's the way it has to be.

I highly recommend this book to all book lovers: everyone can find a piece of himself in little Firmin. It is also a good read for those who, like me, try to find the meaning of life in everything they do (just like our little friend). Caution: never recommend this book to depressive types, as this book could really put them down!

Maybe someday we will find other books referencing Firmin, as it has all the ingredients to be a masterpiece of modern american literature. I loved it from beginning to end; hence: ( )

No other adult fiction has had a protagonist quite like Firmin. Firmin is a highly intelligent (and well-read!) rat living above a bookstore in 1960s Boston. Firmin is a hopeless romantic and has, at times, been so overcome by the great classics of literature, that he cannot stop himself from devouring them, literally. It is a wonderful, darkly comic read with an unforgettable narrator. ( )

A good little book about a very intelligent rat who can read and play the piano, no less! I enjoyed this book very much, and really felt Firmin's emotions, although I was glad the book wasn't any longer as I think it was just the right length. ( )

Firmin ah Firmin…

I have a true affection for books about books, reading, libraries, etc… and I love stories of outsiders. This book about a book loving rat was like a fable written just for me. I loved Firmin… the book and the rat. As he traveled his way through life in a bookstore, I found myself intensely attached to and concerned for him. He made me laugh and I was even a bit choked up by the end.

Wow!
Um
Wow!

Savage's debut novel introduces Firmin, a rat with a very large vocabulary and an appreciation for literature. The book is deceptively slim and looks like a quick read, but isn't. At times I found Firmin repulsive; yet, I could not put it down. This book will appeal to audiences looking for something different. ( )

My Rating: A

My Review

When I first picked this book up and read the back I was quite suer I'd love it. It sounds like a book for anyone who loves to read just as much as I do. it also sounds a bit cutsie and fun.

While it is a 'fun' book, it's not at all cutsie. It can be very depressing at times and also it's a very adult book. I had visions of reading this to my friends kids'. No.

At first I was taken away by the expansive vocabulary used in this novel. As the story progresses it makes perfect sense for the main character to use such words. After a bit of struggle against the vocab to get into the book, the story really took me away. There were times when I was chasing down my friends to read passages to them and times when I was shushing them because the events taking place felt like they were actually affecting me. Exactly what you want in a novel.

The only issue I have with this novel is that multiple times the main character mentions being in a certain place, talking to a certain somewhere, that just doesn't fit into the story line. It did trip me up and kept me wondering what exactly that meant. Other than that I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves books, or the idea of how a life can be lived. It's a relatively quick read, though not as quick as you may initially think. Unlike most quick reads it will most definitely stick with you. ( )

Firmin may have just nosed (hehe, get it? it's about a rat...) it's way into contention for one of my top 5 books. it's seriously good. delicious (haha, you really have to read this book)! even when i was almost in tears, i was loving every second. i can't believe this is a debut novel. i think i love you, Sam Savage. it probably helps that i've had rats as pets, since i know how affectionate they can be, but i think anyone who has ever felt like an outsider (and even some who haven't) should be able to sink their teeth into this book (ok, i can't stop myself).

years ago, my brother wanted a rat, so my mom rescued (bought for $2) one from the feeder tank at the reptile store. we named her Daisy. we had only had her 1 week when she got really sick. my mom took a half-dead rat to the vet to see what he thought. he ended up putting her on an iv drip that cost $50.
my mom and i were laying in the floor, with Daisy in a shoe box with the iv in her tiny little front leg and she could barely move. she just sat there staring at me for the longest time. and then, very very slowly, she climbed out of the box, up onto my shoulder, and nestled in behind my ear under my hair. my mom and i both just started bawling. it was one of the sweetest, saddest moments of my pet owning life.

we had Daisy for 2 1/2 years, which is quite a long life for a rat, until she got cancer. she was a cherished member of our family by then, and my dad wasn't even mad when we spent another $50 to have her put to sleep. he even buried her next to his cherished dog Jake.

Firmin, for me, was a total love story for Daisy. having had her in my life made it all the more beautiful, especially the last few chapters. and i'm not ashamed to say that i was crying through parts of it. i hope you love the book, even if you don't like rats. ( )

This runt of a rat learns to read by eating them and he also understand them! The story is about his life, initially in a bookshop, and the few humans he has contact with and the changing environment in the run down area in which he lives.
Although this is a strange plot line the author makes it plausible, or at least plausible engough to make it a good read. ( )

Firmin is a book-lover, book-eater rat who lives in a bookshop in Boston and later moves in with an eccentric writer. He loves cinema (classic films as well as some blue movies that are played in the same theater) enjoys jazz and cannot stand the boring life that the other rats live. Firmin is unable to communicate his rich inner life to others, so the book is a long monologue, but he is such a funny, complex character that no other voice is needed. In his narrative he makes allusions to many of the books he reads and, in an indirect way, to many philosophical issues, but he does it with his tongue in cheek style, so the book is never boring or pretentious. This is a very entertaining book, which will make you smile. ( )

Fascinating tale of a bookstore-based Boston rodent ( )

An airport puchase this one. I always buy a book when I travel whether I need one or not. And I always try and go for something a bit different so this fitted all the criteria.

Firmin is a rat the runt of the litter who was born in a book store in Boston. Being the runt he did not manage to get as much food from his mom and finds food in eating the books in the book store. Apart from the nourishment to keep him alive he grows a certain intelligence based on what he eats. So he sees himself as a kindred spirit with Norman the owner and imagines himself helping in the bookstore.

In the end though the area of Boston where he lives is bulldozed for regeneration. And he sees how the community changes with this impending event coming close. Also he sees that his kindred spirit is not the man he thinks he is and becomes friends with someone at the beginning he did not consider "equal"to him.

A good book for a first novel with the only wierdness being that the main character is a rat. If you changed this to being a human though all of this would seem normal - but then me personally I wonder whether I would have picked up the book. I am so glad I got hooked though by that one thing cause the rest of the book was a great read. ( )

Curious ... I read this when I needed to take a little break in the middle of an intense book. I read Firmin quickly and I suppose I could summarise it as 'cute'. If you are looking for a short, pacy read that doesn't require your utmost attention go for it and enjoy. The image of an alcoholic mother rat slurping from puddle to puddle will stick in my mind for a while! ( )

Firmin is a book about a rat that learns to read through devouring books. His story is possibly the saddest I have ever read.
As a baby he is rejected by his family as the runt of the litter, his love for the bopokshop owner is unrequited and so on.
This book is truly original and should be read by everyone. ( )

I saw this book in the store and with the bite mark in the side and the title/subject I had to have it.

It was a short quick read. It was well written and a I loved Firmin the rat. Although he was able to read, and understand both spoken and written human language, he was still just a rat.

He didn't have any super-rat powers, and of course no way to communicate his thoughts, feelings or insights to humans. His rat brethren are just ordinary rats and not interested in humans. Humans are mostly not interested in rats, except to exterminate them.

The story is of how Firmin makes a life for himself that straddles human and rat life. He becomes attracted to human women through the movies, even though there is no hope of even meeting a woman, let alone any relationship.

The story seems to be using the rat as a metaphor for a quiet life of desperation, where no matter how much you know, if you are different, you will be alone and have to come to terms with the hard reality of life.

In short the book seemed to be: life sucks and then you die. While the book can have a message, it needs to actually have or complete the cover story that carries the message satisfactorily. It didn't.

There was no real completion of the story, it just ended with a fizzle. It was like getting all dressed up for a special event and then having no place to go. ( )

What a refreshing story! I can imagine that this story hypes itself, it's that good. I liked Firmin as a character and his name is so well chosen. The story is always interesting and just so well written! ( )

"...twice someone asked Jerry if I was tame, and he answered the same both times, 'No, man, he's not tame--he's civilized.'"

Firmin is born in the basement of a Boston bookshop to a drunken, carousing mother. He is the runt of the rat litter, which means that he eats only after his larger and stronger siblings have satiated themselves. Firmin finds that he can fill the void in his stomach by chewing the pages of books that lay about his abode so abundantly. He literally devours books.

As he realizes that the very books he has been chewing contain words that tell stories, the little rat with an over sized head becomes a book devourer of a different sort. He reads voraciously. He thinks deeply. He is a philosopher. Yes, Firmin is a civilized rat.

Firmin spends his days living vicariously through literature. The stories he reads become his reality, providing a sense of adventure and meaning into which he can escape his desperate isolation. Over time, Firmin realizes that he doesn't really fit into the worlds of his reading and, though surrounded by words, he is unable to express himself using them. Firmin's "otherness" and difficulty using language is, perhaps, an echo of the sometimes thoughts of a writer.

It is through such human emotions that the author draws us to his rather uncomely character and makes us think about our own illusions, both literary and other.

I had not heard of this book until seeing it laying on a table at my local bookstore. I was drawn immediately by the charming cover, "gnawed" edge, and inside illustrations. A quick glance at the cover might lead you to think that this is a book for children. Do not be deceived. Firmin is a book for the adult book lover and philosopher. ( )

NoBSBookReviews ( )

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I pitied the self-pitying rat Firmin because there is so much about him to pity. I wish I could give him a hug, but-- alas-- he dies in the end. Oops, sorry. ( )

This book is quite unlike anything I have ever read before - and I must admit, when I first started reading it I thought I had made one of my very infrequent reading mistakes and that I wasn't going to finish it. In the most basic terms, this novel is about the odd life of a rat named Firmin. Born in a bookstore to an alcoholic mother, Firmin is the runt of a litter of rowdy children, and he quickly has to learn to take care of himself. Unable to feed properly thanks to his boisterous siblings, he has to take matters into his own hands and starts to chew on the books around him.

To his surprise, he finds them delicious, and as he chews more and more he starts to be able to tell the difference between the taste of various authors and publishers, between good and bad literature - and realises he is learning to read. This is the starting point for a strange life, filled with literature, the bookstore, the nearby cinema with its gyrating 'Lovelies' - and most of all, a desire to be understood by the humans he so admires.

So far so unusual, but this is much more than a book about a rat. In the beginning Firmin's poetic lyricism, his lapses into crudity and his odd ideas, built out of the books he has read and his permanent melancholic state, felt self conscious and overdone, hence my initial scepticism. But slowly I felt myself sinking into the world of this little creature, into his impossible dreams of something bigger than his life, into his hopeless quest for acceptance by the humans around him who see vermin, not Firmin. In telling his life story he veers between black humour and utter misery, yet in seeing us both through our literature and through observation of our lives and habits, peering in longingly, he cuts sharply through to the very core of human emotion and philosophy.

As the council's town redevelopment (read: demolishment) plans move slowly, ominously, ever-closer to the bookstore and to the life Firmin has built for himself, the reader can only allow themselves to be swept up in the tide of rising hopes and crushing disappointments, happiness and despair, friendship and loneliness, that make up the world of this little rat. Ultimately, of course, he is an allegorical figure pushing in vain against his own nature, his place in life, the weight of knowledge and the unstoppable forces that threaten to drown everything he holds dear - and finally bring him full circle.

The best advice I could offer would be to read it for yourself. Look at the heartbreakingly sweet, melancholic pictures dotted amongst the pages; feel the yearning and the intelligence oozing from each word, each moving sentence... You will never look at the world in quite the same way again. ( )

Not a bad read, but if you are looking for a book about highly intelligent vermin, I would have to go for the ever classic Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nihm. Sure, it doesn’t have as many literary references, or an adorable bite taken out of the pages, but the overall narrative structure functions more like fiction should- as a good story. Firmin was a bit too self-aware for my tastes, and I never really cared about the characters or even the destruction of the neighborhood. ( )

Synopsis: Firmin is a rat born in a shredded copy of Finnegan's Wake in the basement of a Boston bookstore, circa 1960. While his siblings are more interested in eating books, Firmin enjoys reading them. He consumes literature and carries with him all the hopes, desires, dreams and failings of humanity. He spends his days in his "balloon" observing bookstore owner, Norman delight in finding customers the perfect book. Firmin is sad when he discovers that the first human he ever loved, is not who Firmin believes he is. Firmin finally ventures from the bookstore to the Boston public gardens, trying to find a deaf person to whom he can sign "goodbye, zipper." He only discovers humans view him as a pest; freaking out over the "rabid" rat. He is rescued by Jerry Magoon, where the two share an apartment until Scollay Square is demolished. Firmin struggles with mortality and the meaning of life - right up until the last page.

Pros: It has a likable main character, humor, hope, sadness, despair - everything that would be in one of Firmin's great novels. The literary references and bite-sized gimmick sold me on this book when I saw it at my local bookstore. A good book for a bibliophile who won't find offense to the darker side of a dreamful rat.

Cons: It was not the literary satire I was expecting it to be. The book could be somewhat vulgar in places for those easily offensive. Despite the cute illustrations - NOT a children's book. ( )

Although I was always turned off by animal stories (even those like Animal Farm or Watership Down that were allegories for our own or future society) as a younger reader, I couldn't resist asking for a review copy of a book that features a rat born in a bookstore. Basically, mention books in your jacket or marketing copy and you can reel me in hook, line and sinker. The good news is that this book did not disappoint. Firmin is born into a nest of shredded pages torn from Joyce's Ulysses. This, perhaps, makes it understandable that it is a bit of a struggle to get into the book initially. But persevere and the omnivorous reader is rewarded. Firmin tells of his life in books, both eating them and once he learns, in reading them. I definitely chuckled when our intrepid rat tastes toilet paper for the first time and discovers it to taste similarly to Emily Post's etiquette tomes. But Firmin is the book rat in all of us. His imagination, nutured by his reading, is writ large and oftentimes gets him into trouble. He sees the coming destruction of his neighborhood but prefers to stay oblivious, with his nose in a book. He is, in short, a furry scholar who can only shut out the real world for so long. And don't for one minute think he's limited to the highbrow. Oh no. He is also a connisseur of girlie movies, featuring women he calls his "Lovelies," shown at the local movie theater, which is also a treasure trove of food for a rat. Firmin is a funny and loveable character and the book is a small gem for eclectic readers. ( )

Funny, touching and sad book. ( )

While I'm not as enthusiastic about this book as some other Early Reviewers, I enjoyed it more than I expected. I'm still not quite sure why I was chosen to receive it. I did request it, expecting something a bit more like a literary satire, but it's really a minor fantasy (I don't read fantasy) and a bittersweet comment on human nature and civilization--from a rat's point of view. I found the cutesy little bite mark to be a major irritation that made it difficult to hang onto the book comfortably while reading. ( )