Book Notices | The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean, The Library Book

Amazon   Well, reading this was a balm. Susan Orlean here focuses her loving homage to libraries on the great fire that destroyed Los Angeles's Central Library in 1986. We learn about the events of the day itself—the damage done to building and books, the arson investigation that followed, and the unusual character on whom suspicion soon settled, a likable would-be actor and compulsive liar named Harry Peak. But in telling the story of the fire and its consequences, Orlean allows her attention to wander. She fleshes out the book with discussions of Central Library's staff and previous directors, its departments and collections, the architect who designed the building, its rebuilding and reopening in 1993; she also moves beyond Los Angeles to library get-togethers around the globe, to lending libraries that deliver books by burro and camel, to a consideration of the surprisingly large range of services that libraries have provided and continue to provide, updating always for the needs of their communities at the time. The Library Book is wide-ranging and pretty much always interesting and, really, just a lovely book.