In the Stacks: Short Stories
About Libraries and Librarians
Edited
by Michael Cart
As
someone whose two professional jobs have been in academic libraries,
how could I possibly pass over In
the Stacks
when I stumbled
across
it, and
I promise that this is absolutely true, in the stacks?
The simple answer is that I couldn't, and I picked it up hoping to
find a selection
of stories that illustrate and explore
some of the inherent
variety
of
my
chosen profession. Although
some of the authors do engage relevant themes, I was disappointed to
find that the authors
use librarians and librarians almost incidentally; and while this
certainly
a valid way to construct a story (I
hardly expect every story to laud everything that I happen to find
important), this
tendency is more than a little disingenuous in a collection whose
stated purpose is to collect stories on that theme.
Sure, each story includes at least one library or librarian, but only
a handful are
particularly concerned with their
impact
or
meaning.
This is even more baffling when considering that
editor Michael Cart deliberately chose preexisting publications,
rather than being forced to work with new submissions.
The
collection is further limited by a noticeable lack of editorial
context: Cart provides no introductory notes, and it can often be
difficult to discern when and where, exactly, a particular story is
supposed to be taking place. This creates an unpleasant sense of
confusion and contributes to the
difficulty in distinguishing between many
of the stories, even
immediately after reading them.
Relatively
simple solutions, such as an
obvious organizing principle, individual introductory notes, or
endnotes that actually mention the selected
stories, are, alas, absent.
Cart somewhat compounds the problem in his introductory remarks,
which bafflingly characterize Ursula K. LeGuin's excellent "The
Phoenix" as "impossible to classify", despite the fact
that it is a relatively straightforward thought experiment that takes
place in a vaguely European city that conforms largely to our
expectations of reality (even
if the setting itself is, strictly speaking, a fictional one).
I was, however, pleased to find a traditional detective story
(Anthony Boucher's "QL 696.C9"), although it hinges on a
supposedly mysterious clue that should be immediately obvious to
anyone who has used a college library, let alone worked in one. More
entertaining is "Ed Has His Mind Improved" by Walter R.
Brooks, which features the droll wit of everyone's favorite talking
horse. I even appreciated some of
the stories
that rely on more
stereotypical
portrayals
of librarians, such as Zona Gale's "The Cobweb", when
they featured these characters in a meaningful way.
But
though some
may be wonderful in their own right, they feel woefully out of place
here, cheapening the collection and the profession in the process.
Nonetheless,
the collection's generally blasé attitude doesn't entirely detract
from the power of its best stories, which (perhaps unsurprisingly)
tend to be those that focus on librarians' devotion to their work.
"The Phoenix" is as powerful a meditation on the
librarian's charge as Italo Calvino's now-canonical "A General
in the Library", and I appreciate the way that these authors,
along with Isaac Babel (whose "The Public Library" is
similar, but less subtle), prominently feature libraries and examine
the librarians' various roles within their communities. It is surely
unsurprising that Ray Bradbury's "Exchange" is easily the
best of the lot, gently guiding and then altering the reader's view
of the librarian in question, ultimately drawing tears in its simple,
understated beauty and appreciation for the very
best librarians. And so every short story anthology has a few
standout stories at either end of the spectrum, but the greatest
failure of this particular attempt is the large number of stories
that are instantly forgettable. In
the Stacks
seems
destined to disappoint, both because of the generally underwhelming
quality of the stories within and those stories' disappointing lack
of engagement with the book's stated theme.
Grade:
B-
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