The Dark Side of the Bookmobile
I was intrigued by the premise of The Night Bookmobile, a graphic novel composed by Audrey Niffenegger (of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry Fame), which I read about in the New York Times last Friday. The Times listed The Night Bookmobile as one of the best graphic novels of 2010, “about a woman who stumbles upon an old Winnebago filled with everything she has ever read. The volumes conjure long-forgotten memories … that are sure to be echoed by readers when they ruminate on their own experiences with books.” Yes! It echoed all right — I thought of my year of reading one book a day, a year that not only brought me new reading experiences but allowed me to recover so many memories of a life punctuated by books. I turned to books when sorrow became too heavy and too constant a burden and reading allowed me once again to see the wonder and beauty in life.
But The Night Bookmobile is not about the rejuvenating power of books. It is instead a marvelously rich and harrowing visit to the dark side of books’ encompassing power of enchantment, where one woman’s relationships with the books she has read becomes more important than any other experience in her life. Her books become so paramount that she is willing to give up anything to be with them, in the bookmobile, always and forever. But in a clever and unforeseen twist of Niffenegger’s writing and drawing wrist, the woman’s final effort to ensure a guaranteed furlough with her books doesn’t quite work out as planned.
Chilling in its conclusion, I wasn’t sure whether to take The Night Bookmobile as a warning or as a promise. A warning against letting books rule your life (I can think of much worst taskmasters), or a promise that somewhere out there, such bookmobiles do exist.
In the afterword to the graphic novel, Niffenegger asks “What would you sacrifice to sit in that comfy chair with perfect light for an afternoon … reading the perfect book?” The Night Bookmobile will make you think very hard before answering her question.
