The Dewey Decimal System of Love

Josephine Carr

Alison Sheffield first appears as the stereotypical librarian. She's 40 years old (although doesn't look it), single, has long hair she keeps tied up, and wears high neck blouses. But dig just a little and her true self starts to show. Instead of a cat in a small apartment in Philadelphia, she has orange trees in a large, open factory type space apartment that is perfect for her. She has a Miata convertible that she keeps the top down even at the beginning of the winter.She's the head of the reference department at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

She has fallen in love with a man she hasn't met. He's the new conductor of the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra. He's married as well, but Ally is sure that won't be a problem. She tells her best friend from college, Suzanne, who says she'll help follow the wife. Her boss and friend at work, the director of the library Gordon, guesses she is in love, but she doesn't admit it to him. They've been friends for many years and she has watched him date woman after woman for years. She wasn't going to admit her secret to him.

Now Ally has to figure out how to attract Aleksi's attention and discredit the man's wife. She volunteers at the Symphony Hall on Saturday morning. She takes on the archives of the symphony. Those archives haven't been touched in decades. When she finds a treasure, she has her key to opening a relationship with the conductor.

Josephine Carr's The Dewey Decimal System of Love promised to be entertaining. I was disappointed. It has its funny moments but they don't offset the flatness of the story. I was correctly predicting the end by the second chapter, although there is a twist I didn't expect. It is told in first person narrative by Ally. She's a conflicted woman who has a lot to put to rest in her life. Until she does, she can't be close to anyone in her life.

The redeeming factor in The Dewey Decimal System of Love is the beginning of each chapter. Josephine Carr begins each with a statement like this from chapter 14: "For questions about body language, go to the 153.6s (e.g. Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behavior, How to Read a Person Like a Book)." A question posed in the following chapter is used to point to a reference in the Dewey Decimal System. My favorite is on chapter 10: "For questions about librarians featured in erotic literature, you will find absolutely nothing in the public library."

The Dewey Decimal System of Love is cute, but just never caught my imagination.

Notice:  Suggestive dialogue or situations