In the Stacks - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585672599 ISBN 13: 9781585672592

Publisher: Overlook Books, 2002

Synopsis

Libraries, with their miles and miles of books are, for writers and readers alike, the magical portal to new worlds-the source of terrors, delights, and pleasures aplenty. Here, in one volume, noted author and librarian Michael Cart has assembled a fascinating collection of twentieth century short fiction about libraries and librarians: from such classics as Borges's "The Library of Babel" and Isaac Babel's "The Public Library," to such contemporary gems as John Cheever's "Trouble of Marcie Flint" and Lorrie Moore's "Community Life." Love, lunacy, obsession, and the joy of reading come together in a collection that readers, booksellers, and librarians would agree is long overdue.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Cart was for many years the director of the Beverly Hills Public Library. He is the author of many books, including Tomorrowland, a collection of short stories for young adults, What s So Funny: Wit and Humor in American Children s Literature, and From Romance to Realism: Fifty Years of Growth and Change in Young Adult Literature. In addition, he has been the children s book editor for Parent s magazine and is a columnist for Booklist.

Reviews

Contributions from such major figures as Borges, Cheever, Alice Munro and Ray Bradbury carry the day in In the Stacks: Short Stories about Libraries and Librarians, assembled by former librarian Michael Cart (My Father's Scar). Borges's well-known "The Library of Babel" is the best of the bunch, with its thought-provoking musings on the possibilities of an "infinite" library. Cheever chips in with a noteworthy contribution in "The Trouble of Marcie Flint," a typical exploration of infidelity and the dark side of suburbia. A handful of the remaining stories are pedantic, underdeveloped or ill-conceived, but there's more than enough wheat among the chaff to make this an intriguing collection.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Librarian Cart (Tomorrow Land) gathered these 19 stories about what he calls "the many-splendored universe we call the library." What is impressive is the list of writers: Italo Calvino, Ray Bradbury, Ursula Le Guin, Isaac Babel, Alice Munro, John Cheever, Jorge Luis Borges, and more are represented in these pages. A librarian's love of books is dramatically demonstrated in Le Guin's "Phoenix," where the librarian risks his life to save some precious examples from fire, and in Anthony Boucher's "QL696.C9," the call number is a clue to a mystery. Librarians and romance are subjects in Sue Kaufman's "Summer Librarian" and Francine Prose's "Rubber Life," while other stories focus on the value of the library itself. Calvino's "A General in the Library," the strongest story in the collection, reaffirms the power of books as a general is told to clean out all the politically incorrect books in a library and ends up wanting to read them all. Frustratingly, while most of the stories praise the library and books, the librarians portrayed often fit the stereotype of the lonely, timid character that librarians have been struggling to overcome. Recommended for large library collections. Josh Cohen, Mid-Hudson Lib. Syst., Poughkeepsie, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Overlook Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1585672599
• ISBN 13: 9781585672592
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Cart Michael