The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva JurczykMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this up on a whim because I figured it would appeal to my librarian alter ego. While the "Mystery of the Missing Manuscript" might not appeal to everyone, anybody who has any experience with the politics and personalities of academia will find something to enjoy here. Jurczyk writes with a dry humor that befits her protagonist, Liesl. Liesl is an interesting character -- full of inner desires and hopes, but moves through her life with a wry smile and grudging utilitarian tolerance for the fools (all men) she must suffer to keep her job. There is definitely a subtext here, but it is written with a complexity of character that lends the book an intricacy and intellectual heft. There is also a message about how well we know the people we work with--the assumptions we make, the choices as to how close to get...when one becomes a "friend" beyond a "colleague." It is a puzzling novel in that if you were to describe the basic plot to me, I probably wouldn't think it would go far, but Jurczyk does an admirable job of building dimensionality into the characterization and the plot so that the reader can't help but be interested.
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