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A review by shanaqui
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I didn't know much about the fire at the Los Angeles Public Library, if I was aware of it at all, and wasn't sure how there could be a whole book about it. Still, reviews persuaded me to give the book a go, and I fully enjoyed it. To start off by answering my own question: it isn't all about the fire, but instead a history of the library itself, from the earliest lending library in Los Angeles, restricted only to paying male members. It covers the various people who have made the library what it is, some of them with more interesting personal lives than others.
It also addresses the question of what a library is for, and the current trajectory of libraries towards being hubs, places where people can gather as well as come to find information. Orlean loves books and being among books, and she loved the journey of gathering information for this book: that much is clear throughout, and her portraits of librarians past and present are respectful, gentle, and fairly forgiving. (Some of them sound unbearable, but Orlean dwells on each with the same sympathy.)
It is also a discussion of the fire, and what caused it. Orlean doesn't purport to have the answer, though you'd be forgiven for thinking so with her focus on the man who was eventually accused of the arson. He crops up throughout the book and we learn about his life, but ultimately the answer is unknowable. To me, it sounded like he was a compulsive liar who felt the need to involve himself in every event around him -- and the "arson" may have been nothing more than faulty wiring, for all we can tell at this distance and from all the evidence at the time. There was no smoking gun.
We do also learn a fair amount about Orlean and her relationship with books and her mother; sometimes this intrusion feels strange, when someone is writing about a place or an event, but I think in this case it helps frame the information. Orlean's experiences are part of what a library is, and contributed to the picture she was painting.
It's a fascinating journey, and I found myself reading great big chunks of it at once. I didn't expect to find it so riveting, but it worked, and I feel the strange compulsion to go and do something about the blocks my libraries have put on my card due to only borrowing ebooks since 2019!
It also addresses the question of what a library is for, and the current trajectory of libraries towards being hubs, places where people can gather as well as come to find information. Orlean loves books and being among books, and she loved the journey of gathering information for this book: that much is clear throughout, and her portraits of librarians past and present are respectful, gentle, and fairly forgiving. (Some of them sound unbearable, but Orlean dwells on each with the same sympathy.)
It is also a discussion of the fire, and what caused it. Orlean doesn't purport to have the answer, though you'd be forgiven for thinking so with her focus on the man who was eventually accused of the arson. He crops up throughout the book and we learn about his life, but ultimately the answer is unknowable. To me, it sounded like he was a compulsive liar who felt the need to involve himself in every event around him -- and the "arson" may have been nothing more than faulty wiring, for all we can tell at this distance and from all the evidence at the time. There was no smoking gun.
We do also learn a fair amount about Orlean and her relationship with books and her mother; sometimes this intrusion feels strange, when someone is writing about a place or an event, but I think in this case it helps frame the information. Orlean's experiences are part of what a library is, and contributed to the picture she was painting.
It's a fascinating journey, and I found myself reading great big chunks of it at once. I didn't expect to find it so riveting, but it worked, and I feel the strange compulsion to go and do something about the blocks my libraries have put on my card due to only borrowing ebooks since 2019!