The Ordinary World

Dewey
Vicki Myron

  This book is a true story, told from the perspective of the author. It's almost an autobiography, but it's not just about Vicki. It's a biography of the entire town of Spencer. Vicki walks you through her childhood, her marriage, and her adult life, but also through the farm crisis of the 1980's, the fire on Grand Avenue in 1931, and the entire history of the Spencer Public Library. The events are a bit scrambled, and out of order, but by the end you feel as if you've know the people all your life.

   The protagonist is called Vicki. She's the director of the Spencer Public Library, and her ordinary world is, I think, a world without a cat in it. She's a single mother who grew up on a farm, had a failed marriage, a late education, and a terrible medical history. She and her teenage daughter are pushing each other further and further away, and Vicki is trying to run a library and take a master's course in library science all at the same time. And then on the morning of January 18, 1988, after one of the coldest nights of the year, Vicki arrived at work to find a kitten in the library drop box.

  The staff named him Dewey. He became the library cat, and he was perfect for the job. He loved people. He loved being in the library. He could cheer up anyone, on any day, at any time, no matter what. He helped Vicki and her daughter stop fighting, if only for a while. He always knew when someone needed comfort. The ordinary world is defined as being a place where the protagonist feels safe, but in this case I think it's the opposite. Dewey made Vicki's life an altogether better thing.

   I realize that this is more of a summary than a description of the ordinary world, but I had to talk about this cat. This isn't another sucky fairy story about the cat who saved Christmas -- this is real. Dewey influenced so many people that a flim crew came from Japan to film him. Japan! This is an amazing book about an amazing town and a totally amazing cat. I think it's a book that everyone should read.

   Here's the link to the Spencer Public Library's site: http://www.spencerlibrary.com/dewey.shtml

  "I have never been a morning person, especially on a cold and cloudy January day, but I have always been dedicated. There were a few cars on the road at seven thirty, when I drove the ten blocks to work, but as usual mine was the first car in the parking lot. Across the street, the Spencer Public Lbrary was dead -- no lights, no movement, no sound until I flipped a switch and brought it to life. The heater switched on automatically during the night, but the library was still a freezer first thing in the morning. Whose idea was it to build a concrete and glass buliding in northern Iowa? I needed my coffee." (Vicki Myron, Dewey 8)


   This quote shows the boring sameness of Vicki's ordinary world, and how she almost can't bear to get up and go to work each morning because it's just too much to do. Later she says, "'Good morning, Dewey,' I would say, my heart singing and the library bursting with life, even on the darkest and coldest mornings." (Vicki Myron, Dewey 193) Her special world may not appear to be much different from her ordinary one, but you'd be surprised at how much difference one cat can make.


<---   Spencer Public Library. Spencer Public Library. Spencer Public Library. Web. Dec. 3, 2011.