Marianne's Reviews > The Lending Library

2.5★s
The Lending Library is the first novel by American author, Aliza Fogelson. After a major disappointment in her art career, Dodie Fairisle quits the anonymity of New York City, and the undermining of her ego by her narcissistic boyfriend, and heads to the small Connecticut hometown of her art school friend.

Soon, she has bought (or her parents have bought her) a quirky but thoroughly charming little house in Chatsworth, has a position teaching art at the elementary school, enjoys the town’s café, library and bookstore, has some close friends, and feels at home, comfortable, secure and loved.

The only thing missing is motherhood, but for that, of course, she needs a man, a conspicuous absence in her current life, although her good friend Sullivan has circumvented that need by adopting a sweet little boy from Ethiopia. Dodie becomes painfully aware, though, that her biological clock is ticking louder and faster than she had thought.

But then her beloved library is suddenly shut down due to safety concerns. It may be an inconvenience for Dodie to travel to the next town for her book fix, but she knows that for some patrons, especially the children, the trip will be impossible, and purchase at the bookstore will be beyond their budget.

For Dodie, the solution is clear: a lending library, and soon the volume of books donated precludes a classroom location; Dodie’s own sunroom proves to be the ideal location. It’s there, through book clubs and storytimes, that Dodie gets to know the residents of her adopted town more intimately than she had ever expected.

So far, so good.

Then Dodie takes up with a hot guy who recently broke with his girlfriend because she wanted children, and he wasn’t ready. And Dodie does NOT mention her own urgent motherhood aspirations.

And then, with a full-time job that barely covers her costs of living and running a community library, and a not-ready-to-father boyfriend, Dodie abandons practicalities, gets all entitled and decides she must have a certain little boy. And when offered help, pride gets in the way of accepting it.

Initially, Fpgelson’s protagonist seems to (mostly) have her heart in the right place, but is often irritatingly flakey, naïve and immature, and morphs into self-absorbed and shallow, while most of the support cast is rather one-dimensional. It feels like we jump into the story half-way through, by which time we are meant to know and love the characters, and care about what happens to them. Sadly, this is not the case.

The initial premise of the story, the lending library, has great potential, but the novel is then hijacked by Dodie’s obsession with acquiring the child, which gets boring quickly. The copious insertion of book titles and meal descriptions doesn’t rescue it. Ultimately, way too predictable, disappointing and a bit of a chore to finish. Unable to recommend this one.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing.