Summary: An investigative look into the arson that took place at the Central Library in Los Angeles in the 1980s, as well as a complete study of libraries worldwide.
Rating & Recommendation: 5/5; recommend for lovers of libraries, history buffs, Angelenos
Review: I absolutely loved this book. My only regret is that I didn't pick it up sooner. Orlean has an clear grasp on what makes libraries so special and how they've endured war, renaissance, and technical revolution. If the summary on the book jacket deterred you, consider it both incomplete and insufficient.
"In truth, a library is as much a portal as it is a place - it is a transit point, a passage."
The Library Book is equal parts true crime (Who set fire to the library?), history lesson (What are libraries and how did they come to be?) and sociological study (What is the value of the library and what is its future?).
Orlean pretty deftly moves from one topic to the next, and the chapters shuffle in focus from the arson suspect to the history of Central Library to the deep and dark pasts of libraries the world over. It took me about 100 pages to get comfortable with the shifting; that's about when you’re able to step back and take stock of the size and scope of her undertaking and appreciate how many avenues she had traveled. The amount and quality of her research is mind boggling, and more than anything, I'm grateful to have read such a labor of love, because the work shows.
"Every problem that society has, the library has, too, because the boundary between society and the library is porous; nothing good is kept out of the library, and nothing bad. Often, at the library, society's problems are magnified."
The story is replete with mystery and intrigue, a colorful cast of characters both inside the library and out, and a gripping look at what libraries have come to represent. There's a section that covers the power (and devastation) of book burning as a weapon, and it nearly brought me to tears. Orlean understands the power of the written word and why writers continue to do it (and why we continue to read it) despite centuries of censorship and struggles.
"Destroying a library is a kind of terrorism."
If you've loved a library in your life, you understand what it's like to be one of its mistresses. There's a current that runs through each shelf, each book, each page, through its lovers; it puts you under a spell, and makes you weak for its charm. If the library is the greatest Lothario, we're all swooning at it's feet, desperate for more and unconcerned that we have to share it with others. Such is the nature of the library: It's an equal opportunity lover, with an undiscerning palate and a voracious appetite for victims. But it's like luck, a badge of honor that we were chosen to spend a moment seduced by it and it's Siren Song.
Orlean gets that, and she explains why so easily. Libraries have come to mean so much to so many - they‘re community and cultural centers for the disenfranchised; cool and quiet places for those in search of peace; repositories of resources, of nostalgia, of fact and fiction and information and imagination; and they’re the last free center for enrichment and exploration. It's why libraries are still relevant, why the Internet and eBooks and video games didn't plague it.
I assumed I would be bored reading about a building, but the opposite happened - I fell in love with books and libraries all over again, and I've fallen for Susan Orlean, too. I cannot wait to pick up The Orchid Thief.
Comments