Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan (Book Summary and Review) - Minute Book Report

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• published: 06 Sep 2014
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This is a quick book summary and analysis of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Minute-Book-Reports/1148331925195691 This is a story about a guy named Clay who loses his job as a website designer and is forced to work in a 24-hour bookstore owned by Mr. Penumbra, a mysterious and quiet man. Clay works the night shift and as expected, the bookstore is pretty slow. However, a few customers enter the store and borrow books from a series of shelves towards the back of the store. Clay soon notices a pattern with these certain customers and slowly figures out that each patron is borrowing books in a systematic sequence. After Clay approaches Penumbra about it, Penumbra opens up about the purpose of the bookstore. He shares that it’s part of an underground society called the Unbroken Spine, an organization run by a man named Corvina that is dedicated to unlocking a secret code hidden within a series of books. After Penumbra disappears to New York, Clay decides to go after him with the help of his rich friend, Neel, and a girl who works at Google, Kat. In New York, the group discovers that the Festina Lente Company, a front for the Unbroken Spine organization, has a secret headquarters there that is home to a large library of books. Penumbra then explains to Clay that the purpose of the Unbroken Spine is to read through old members’ writings in order to unlock the secret of immortality. Clay discovers that the library holds the writings of Manutius, one of the first printers and publishers in history, and so the group decides to break into the library after hours and scan the pages of Manutius’ writing in hopes that they can figure out the secret code. Clay is successful by not only scanning Manutius’ writings, but also Penumbra’s writings. Because Kat works at Google, she uses Google’s resources to try to unlock the code within Manutius’ writings. However, after using the power of the entire Internet, they fail and Penumbra goes into hiding. Clay doesn’t give up and continues to search for the answers in Manutius’ writings. He recovers historic block type letters in a museum and notices something in the actual letters themselves. In the end, Clay discovers that the code is hidden in the font and that immortality is only possible through the written word. As always, a lot can be said about this story, but what draws my interest and attention is the idea of juxtaposing old and new technology as a way to portray the need for both. Three characters represent this dichotomy: Corvina is old technology, Clay is new technology, and Penumbra is the transition. Corvina is very much against what Penumbra and Clay are doing to unlock the secrets of the writings using technology and computers. He would prefer to have members of the Unbroken Spine do it the old fashioned way: read book after book and eventually write their own book before they die. This resistance to the new comes both as a fear of the unknown and also a strong holding on to the past. Clay is the new school. He is excited about what technology can provide and sees technology as a blessing. However, he lacks a lot of the background and historical knowledge to put it all together by himself. Fortunately for him, one of his favorite authors was able to provide him some insight through an audiobook. Penumbra is the middle ground, and while the story focuses mostly on Clay, it’s really Penumbra that changes the most throughout the story. In a lot of ways, Penumbra starts out like Corvina, but has a little desire to move towards progress. However, each time he has tried in the past, it has failed and so he lacks the confidence to try anything significant. But as Penumbra sees the excitement and interest of Clay and his friends, he is further encouraged to allow technology to take away some of the burden, as is proof when he is interested in upgrading his store computer and his purchase of an e-reader. However, that’s not to say that this story is an argument for progress and technology as the saviors to our problems. As shown in the conclusion of the story, the secret was not discovered by the most powerful computer in the world, but by human intelligence on the most primitive form of the printed word: a letter. And so it would seem that while technology can make our lives much more convenient, we can’t expect technology to do everything for us. Ultimately, we, as the creators of technology, still have to think and comprehend what we see in the world around us. And while our world dives deeper into what technology can provide us, there needs to always be a part of us that would rather see life with our own eyes instead of through a screen. Music by Chris Zabriskie