The Night Bookmobile

The Night Bookmobile
by Audrey Niffenegger [741.5 Nif]

I had read some positive comments about this "adult picture book", from the author of The Time Travelers Wife, and was happy to have a chance to read it. I had no idea Niffenegger was also an artist, although the art in this graphic novel is notably simplistic (for the most part). The tale she tells, however, is whimsical, nostalgic, thoughtful, depressing and uplifting all at once. Told in retrospect, this is the story of Alexandra, a young woman who stumbles across the Night Bookmobile, in a large Winnebago staffed by librarian Robert Openshaw. This mysterious mobile library is only open from Dusk until Dawn, and she discovers that it is ONLY stocked with the hundreds of books that she has already ready in her young life. Inspired to reconnect with the books she's always loved, Alexandra seeks out the bookmobile again, only to not find it whenever she's actually looking for it. It is only when she stop looking that it reappears to her at various times in her life. I found myself very moved by this work, despite its at-times childish art style. If you're a lover of books, you will connect with The Night Bookmobile's message -- that, as Neil Gaiman says, "what we read makes us who we are." Delightful and thought-provoking! [I have a hard time recommending that readers try her full-length novels, The Time Travelers Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, but Niffenegger does have two experimental photographic novels that might appeal to fans of this graphic novel.] -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ Night Bookmobile page on the UK's "The Guardian" site ] | [ official Audrey Niffenegger web site ]

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