The Borrower

 The Borrower 

By Rebecca Makkai

I picked this one up based upon the binge-worthiness of Makkai's most recent novel, I have some

questions for you. If Richard Russo's quip on the front cover is to be believed, this is her first novel. 

The protagonist-antagonist of this book is Lucy Hull, a children's "librarian" -- quotes because she never received her library science degree -- in Hannibal, MO, who develops a close relationship with one of her patrons, or borrowers, named Ian Drake, a voracious reader living under the strict thumb of a conservative Christian mother. So Lucy slips Ian books every now and again that she thinks he will like. Until.

One day, Ian gives Lucy a piece of origami as a Christmas present. When she unfolds it, she sees a testimonial written by Ian's mother about her son's participation in a gay-conversion therapy run by a prominent pastor. Lucy is horrified, and suddenly obsessed with her young friend's plight. So when she finds him camped out in the children's room of the library one morning after running away from home, she is torn about what to do. She half-heartedly tries to drive him home, but when it is clear he is jerking her around -- and that he DOES NOT want to go home -- she just keeps driving. And driving. And driving. To Chicago and Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Vermont. So now Lucy is the "borrower". 

The journey takes up the bulk of the book, and I will say it was a bit excruciating to read. I mean, it's such a horrible decision on so many levels and clearly nothing but doom awaits. And there are really no hints that anything else is coming. It's like watching a slow motion car wreck for two hundred pages. Things improved after a stop in Pittsburgh, where Lucy learns an important secret about her father, who nearly lost his life fleeing the Soviet Union, and it becomes clear that the trip is as much about Lucy rescuing herself as it is about her rescuing Ian. 

I will say that the ending was a bit too tidy and happy. Somehow, Lucy gets away with it. Which is just impossible. A kid goes missing for over a week, shows up again on a Grayhound -- somebody is going to jail. So that was disappointing. But, over all, a pretty good read.