Rating: Three Stars ***
Genre: Graphic Novel - Mystery
Summary: Alexandra, a lover of books and ravenous reader, stumbles upon a bookmobile in the middle of the night after walking away from a fight with her live in boyfriend. To her surprise the bookmobile holds a library of every book she has ever read in her lifetime. After leaving her boyfriend, she searches for this bookmobile nightly, and without any luck reads more voraciously then ever before. She is only able to find the bookmobile every decade or so, and each time yearns to become the librarian of her own bookmobile. After studying to be a librarian, she commits suicide only to realize that she had to give up her entire library to follow her dreams.
Evaluation: There is no doubt that this book has widened the audience for the graphic novel market. This is a story written by and made for book lovers and librarians, and the colorful graphics has given life to Niffenegger's original short story. The illustrations in itself lacks in skill, but the presentation of the book is nonetheless attractive. The book fails in being climatic, but the mystery and fantasy of the story successful. A contemporary, lighter illustrative version of Borges' The Library of Babel.
Read-a-likes: The Adventuress by Audrey Niffenegger
Rex Libris Volume One: I, Librarian (Rex Libris) by James Turner
"The Night Bookmobile was first a short story written by Niffenegger in 2004. In 2010, she adapted the story into a graphic novel.
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