The title intrigued me, and the book followed through. This is an interesting and challenging novel that I really enjoyed.

I found this a very confusing read. Described on GR as "fiction" MPG the early parts of this book feel more like a memoir of the author through his book shelves. There is, however, a second thread to the book which seems to be a re-examination of an earlier story about a mother and her boy. BUT is it actual events or story? I simply cannot make up me mind. There are lots of references to books that Kalich has previously written under a collective as "Central Park West Trilogy: The Nihilesthete, Penthouse F, Charlie P" I feel as if i should have read these before i attempted this one. Iam uncertain how to rate this it wasn't a difficult read but for me lacked a real"body" I may return to it after reading Kalich's Central Park Collection.

I received a complimentary copy of The Assisted Living Facility Library from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Very rarely does this happen, but I do not think I will finish this book. I read what I could, but none of it interests me--other than the premise. I love my books; I love to read; I have a library of my own and find it difficult to let go of books. However, this story jumps around and cannot be followed. Never am I certain if the plot is in present tense or a flashback--there are no precursors. I only read far enough to discover that he may have taken in a homeless mother and child at some point in his life. ? At any rate, it is not interesting enough for me to continue reading it. This was quite disappointing because I had read such rave reviews about this author who "will become a living author of classics". I whole-heartedly disagree. I now believe that those were family member reviews or paid ones.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Part fiction, part autobiography, this book was way different from the ones I usually read. I liked the concept of the author being allowed to take just a hundred books to the assisted living facility. The dilemma of 'which book to take, which not to take' seems to form the foundation here.
If you like reading books of this genre, you might find this interesting.

What a glorious book this... a glorious, messed up, muddled and mysterious book. The opening premise... 100 books... is itself sufficient to get any constant reader thinking, and watching somebody else go through that torment is itself a disturbing vision. That the book then piles further disturbances onto it seems almost cruel at times - to the reader and to Richard Kalich. But there's also a beauty to the way he moves through them, and the end result is one of those books that... well, it may not make your 100, but it should certainly be on the shortlist.