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“On my days off (as a still life painter) I’d spend my days flipping through sections of fiction and poetry and I’d pull out this book and look at it for a minute. One of the great things about bookstores is that there’s no currency in circulation. And when you have to pay for something… you tend to Be a little more careful about what you buy.But it was free for everyone in the library.
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“The building was there, and it was benevolent.”
Born in Sydney, British Columbia, and raised on Salt Spring Island, then west of Vancouver and Southern California, DeWitt’s career includes novels and the bestseller The French Brothers and Sisters, all of which have been made into Hollywood films. DeWitt also wrote the screenplay for French Exit. It has been nominated for the Man Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Award.
The Librarian, DeWitt’s fifth novel, tells the life story of Bob Comet, a recently retired Portland librarian. Bob lives a life surrounded by books. He is lonely and happier in a chair with a novel.
“I think he said in the book that a room full of printed materials is a room that needs nothing,” DeWitt said. “I think most intellectuals can agree with that to some extent… He probably relies too much on his novels. Instead of mingling with others, he has his books.”
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Bob’s calm surface is cracked when, while volunteering at a senior center, he discovers someone who has played a major role in Bob’s past – the reader soon discovers that he was not calm and inhibited.
“I helped out at a high-profile center before the pandemic hit, and I used to read to them about once a week,” DeWitt said.
During his visits, the writer had conversations which, after some research, yielded many rich stories.
Some people seemed embittered, others at peace. DeWitt said, “If you dig a little deeper, you can see why that is. Part of the author’s work is social study—human behaviors and human interactions.—so it was a very rich thing for me.”
A familiar character, Bob is also likable, especially when DeWitt shows us his backstory, which includes a near-universal story of a broken heart.
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“I love when that happens,” DeWitt said when asked about Bob’s readers and getting to know them. “That’s part of the fun of reading. You are conveying your own experience with the text. It’s collaborative, or it could be, depending on the book.
“I really like it when people relate to a book on a personal level. There’s no right way to read, but…my favorite books usually consist of scenes or characters that feel real to me in the sense that I’ve seen things like that or felt things like that. It falls under Your skin, it’s so much more than that.”
It’s also under the writer’s skin, so much so that DeWitt admits that finishing a novel has never been so comfortable or ceremonial for him.
“Emotionally, there’s a sense of, ‘Now what?’ DeWitt said. “What am I supposed to do with my life now that the current obsession is cleared up and on again? It takes a minute to move on to the next obsession.
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“A lot of times I get really upset and just wander around in a daze. Then something happens that I’m working on. Once I’m back on track with another project, or like right now, I’m focused on journalism and I feel like I’m doing something.” Ayame, it feels good. But the moment the book is delivered and delivered and gone, well, I still expect it to be interesting and that’s kind of not. The feeling of enjoyment or closure comes after the book comes out.
And once he went on tour with him, which is happening now, including a Vancouver signing at Indigo on Robson Street on July 6 at 3 p.m.
“A reading tour is welcome after three years alone in my room. You have a difference in life, because the life of a novelist can be too redundant to be problematic. Until I have these breaks in the routine, I think that’s healthy for me,” DeWitt said.
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Besides the book tour, DeWitt has written a few episodes for the contemporary crime/thriller/drama series set on an island off the west coast of British Columbia. He is also at the beginning of a new novel.
DeWitt said of the novel: “I wander in the dark, but I enjoy it.”
Could a script librarian also be on his to-do list? Yes, but DeWitt is in no hurry to remove Bob from the page of the novel.
“I think there’s something being said to allow the book to be a book for a while,” said DeWitt. “But I’m totally open to it. I really love the process of bringing a book to the screen. Not that it’s fun from start to finish, but it’s a fun ride for me. And I’m open to that.”
