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Reviewed by:
  • Here Lies the Librarian
  • Elizabeth Bush
Peck, Richard Here Lies the Librarian. Dial, 2006 [208p] ISBN 0-8037-3080-2$16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-8

Peck moves eastward from back-of-beyond Illinois (A Year Down Yonder, BCCB 1/01) to boondocks Indiana, 1914, for this tale of a parentless brother and sister, Jake and Eleanor, who scrape out a living servicing autos in a borrowed shed and dream of opening a real repair shop just as soon as hard pavement makes its way to their corner of the world. The answer to their automotive dreams arrives in a somewhat different guise than they expect—a quartet of affluent young ladies from Indiana University who take over the town library in what must rate as literature's Extreme Job Share. Big brother Jake's attentions seem torn between the lovely Irene and equally lovely Grace, and Irene finds time between shifts to take fourteen-year-old narrator Eleanor in hand and try to make some semblance of a lady out of a rough-hewn grease monkey. Despite the best efforts of a rival service station to sabotage their plans, Jake (with the help of Grace's family clout) gets to race at Indianapolis and Eleanor ultimately takes the wheel as the Stutz rattles first across the finish line. Once again Peck demonstrates his masterful storytelling ability with a riveting opener in which a tornado blows through the cemetery and relocates a host of deceased citizens and/or their bits and pieces. From there, though, much of the plotting relies on the unconvincing and underdeveloped premise that four independently wealthy library grads would take on the rural job, and that a pair of exceedingly eccentric neighbors (even by Peck standards) would keep brother [End Page 418] and sister independent over the years. Nonetheless, Eleanor is a delightful narrator whose wry observations draw humor from a culture clash rather than simply exploit rube vs. snob plot potential.

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