My Rating : 3 / 5
Set in San Francisco, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, is a bizarre mixture of pop-culture references, high tech, and literature. Clay Jannon, a graphical artist, finds himself unemployed during a tech recession. Finally motivated to get off his couch, he finds employment at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. There are only two rules to his employment. One: He must always be present from 10pm to 6am. He must not be late or leave early. Two: He is not allowed to read, browse, or in anyway inspect the shelved books. He is only allowed to retrieve them for “members”.
Mr. Penumbra’s, it turns out, is not your usual bookstore. Clay is working the night shift and soon discovers that while there are almost no customers, those that do come, are not buying the books on the shelves in the front of the store. They are members of a secret society and are “borrowing” obscure, unknown books from high shelves in the back reaches of the store. The novel progresses as Clay and his friends try to unravel the mysteries of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.
Sounds interesting? It is, but it could have been so much better. I found the novel to be over done with pop culture references, a little too liberal (and not altogether accurate) with its mentions of Google. There was a decided lack of details and descriptions in so many places in this book. The characters were barely developed at all, with Clay being the most developed and coming across as rather juvenile and unambitious. I also found it super annoying that to simplify the dialog in several places, the author forgo having the narrator (Clay) say anything, like in this quote from pg 86:
I wonder what Raj has in his lunch. “Vitamin D, omega-3s, fermented tea leaves,” he says …
It’s a quick read, and it’s an easy read, but overall, I found it to be lacking in depth and substance.
