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****In the Stacks

Short Stories About Libraries and Librarians

edited by Michael Cart

Reviewed May 25, 2002.
The Overlook Press, 2002.  268 pages.

Of course I had to read this book!  I enjoyed it very much, although it did take me awhile to finish.  I find that it’s much easier to put down a book after completing a story than to put down a novel after finishing a cliff-hanger chapter.

This book contains a wide variety of stories, all loosely connected by involving a library or a librarian.  There’s even a murder mystery, and one about Mr. Ed, the fictional talking horse who inspired the old television series.  Two of my favorites were “A General in the Library,” by Italo Calvino, about what happens when the military tries to investigate the subversive material in a library, and “Exchange,” by Ray Bradbury, where a boy goes back to the town of his youth and discovers that all his human friends have left, but the book friends in the public library (and the librarian) are still there.

There were a couple of stories in the middle that annoyed me by perpetuating the stereotype that librarians are people who miss out on life, but I think several other counteracted that idea.  All in all, this was a delightful and enjoyable collection.

Review of another book edited by Michael Cart:
911:  The Book of Help

Copyright © 2005 Sondra Eklund.  All rights reserved.

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