A Letter to Librarians from Kate Greathead

In THE BOOK OF GEORGE, Kate Greathead creates a deft, unexpectedly moving portrait of one man, but also countless others. In her letter to librarians, Kate reflects on the lessons she learned from her school librarian, and how life often doesn’t take the path we expect.

The faculty at my rather staid all-girls middle school were not forthcoming when it came to matters of personal opinion. Except for Ms. Wilson, the librarian. You could ask her a question, and she would not hold back on disclosing her opinion, whether it be about politics, celebrities, or books. Especially books. Not all books were equal in her eyes. Some were treasures, others trash. Trash! Ms. Wilson was particularly disdainful of a series that was extremely popular among adolescents at the time, a series full of gratuitous gore.

When Ms. Wilson wasn’t deriding this series (and she could be quite funny in doing so), she’d contemplate its appeal to us. One day she told us that when she was our age it was not uncommon to arrive in school to find a classmate in tears because they’d just learned their brother had died in the war. She speculated that our infatuation with this morbid series came from the fact our lives were so removed from death, so sheltered. Vociferous objections ensued from my classmates, but I remember thinking she was onto something.

I am grateful to Ms. Wilson for instilling in me a sense of literary elitism. I’m kidding! She wanted us to read books that offered more than cheap titillation: books that expanded our worldview, challenged our assumptions, nurtured our adolescent ideals and capacity for empathy.

My own child doesn’t have a librarian in his public school, but we take him to the nearest branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, where he delights in finding books that appeal to his preoccupations, mainly wolves and sharks. While there are a surprising number of truly wonderful books about wolves (and a few about sharks), I’m excited for his tastes to evolve.

Books have been a ballast in my life, especially during difficult times, and my appreciation of Ms. Wilson extends to all librarians. To pursue a career devoted to the nonprofit distribution of books is a noble calling—ever more so in this digital era, with our declining attention spans and BREAKING NEWS! cycle metabolism, with book bans and budget cuts. It is with the utmost sincerity that I convey my admiration and gratitude for what you do.

My novel, THE BOOK OF GEORGE, features a protagonist whose appreciation of books is complicated by his ego. He wants to be an author, and a great one. Throughout his young adulthood George writes, but for various reasons, a book never comes to fruition. In the final chapter we see his humble reckoning with this, and—in what I see as the greatest evidence of his personal growth—a major life decision that reveals his love of literature endures. I wanted to depict a struggle I’ve seen many members of my generation wrestle with: how to accept the paths our lives take, especially when they don’t live up to the grand fantasies we nurtured as children.

Regards,

Kate Greathead