Author: Robin Sloan
Published: October 2, 2012
Genre: Fiction
I found Mr. Penumbra while rummaging through the stacks at a library sale that I went to with my mom (you can find my haul post from that trip here). I thought the cover art looked neat (I found out completely by accident later that it glows in the dark), and the description on the back was intriguing. My initial thought before diving in was that I would be reading a mystery book about...well, books. The word "bookstore" is in the title, after all. However, what I ended up finding was a story that I can only describe as Lord of the Rings, National Treasure, and Jobs all rolled into one.
College graduate and amateur programmer Clay Jannon is out of work and running out of options. He manages to find himself a job at a bookstore. However, it doesn't take him long to realize that this store is not ordinary by any standards. For example, Penumbra's Bookstore is open 24-hours straight and is often visited in the late hours of the night by a collection of unusual patrons. They come to "check out" large, ominous volumes that Clay is forbidden to look at. Using his computer skills and receiving help from his variously talented friends, Clay pieces together the movements of the quirky clientele and discovers a secret that quickly becomes bigger than he could ever imagine.
I was captivated by Sloan's storytelling in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, though it didn't happen immediately. Things started a bit slowly, but as Clay got closer and closer to solving the mystery, I got roped in more and more. Written in the first person from Clay's point of view, the prose is witty and engaging, especially when Clay describes Penumbra and his friends who frequent the bookstore.
One hitch that I encountered while reading was the technological jargon that peppers the story. Clay is an amateur computer programmer, but he runs in a circle of geniuses who are all technologically savvy. One, Kat Potente, is a high-ranking programmer at the Google company. The characters often mention things like "code" or "data processing" and all sorts of other computer words that I have no hope of understanding. Their dialogue left me confused in places.
To me, the absolute best part of reading this book was that Sloan crafted it as a love story to books in a time when people are addicted to their phones and tablets. He praises the independent bookstore owners and the people who still value the magical experience of opening a book with printed pages instead of ones pasted on a screen. Those people who still get excited at the smell of their favorite book will enjoy this novel.
Kaylee says:
"A love story to books in a time when people are addicted to their phones and tablets" -- yeah, we probably need more of that. And I need to read more of the various books that I've downloaded onto my Kindle! ;-)
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