USA TODAY International Edition
Orlean’s ‘Book’ is a real page-turner
Los Angeles itself stars in true-history drama
Just as the name implies, Susan Orlean’s “The Library Book” (Simon & Schuster, 317 pp., eeeg) celebrates the love of books and the wonder of public libraries. But, as it turns out, it is so much more.
At its core, it’s the story of one of the worst building fires in L.A. history, a 1986 conflagration in the city’s Central Library, an architectural landmark. One of the most complicated blazes the fire department ever tackled, it exceeded 2,000 degrees and destroyed or damaged more than 1 million books. Orlean turns this into a whodunit, focusing on the search for an arson suspect. After the fire, the city posted requests for clues on billboards and on radio ads. The library staff worried that it might be a disgruntled employee. But librarians remembered a blond young man who was shooed out of the closed history stacks.
It eventually would lead investigators to focus on a troubled, rootless, name-dropping would-be actor. The suspect, Harry Peak, suffered from an inability to keep his alibi straight. Case closed? Not quite. Let’s just say arson is a difficult crime to prove.
The book dives deep into the work and devotion of librarians, knowledgeable and ever-patient, whether going through map collections or fielding questions such as “How long do parrots live?”
I waded into “The Library Book” with trepidation. Though I dig books, am a library nut and an L.A. kind of guy, I harbored doubts that even a skilled writer like Susan Orlean, best known for “The Orchid Thief,” would be able to sustain readers by writing about libraries in general and Los Angeles’ Central Library, the crown jewel in a city that has many branch libraries, in particular.
And I had a hard time imagining she could come up with a book that would rope in readers outside the city known for freeways, smog and suntans.
How wrong I was. “The Library Book” is a sheer delight.
Orlean shows how libraries are embracing new roles in the information age with computer labs, e-books and services that go far beyond the core mission of lending books. In L.A.’s case, the library is reaching out to immigrants and the poor, including the homeless who increasingly spend their days in public libraries around the nation.
The most enjoyable part of the book surrounds the Los Angeles library system’s feminist beginnings, several chief librarians having been women. One, Mary Foy, was only 18 when she got the job in 1880 at a time when librarians catered to men and few chief librarians in major cities were women. All the female chief librarians had their battles with the library board.
Mary Jones, who took over the top library post around 1900, was fired in 1905 because the library head said he preferred to have a male librarian in charge. She refused to leave, keeping her library keys as a petition circulated in her support, signed by 1,000 women.
She eventually gave in and her successor, a colorful, controversial former newspaperman, Charles Lummis, bordered on the wacky. One of his moves was hiring a crony whose job was to present himself to patrons as the Human Encyclopedia, “a walking information desk” who later was dismissed when he flunked the civil service test.
Today, the Central Library, nestled among the skyscrapers in Los Angeles’ revived downtown, is a modern wonder. It reopened in 1993, keeping its 1925 architectural charm and splendid murals combined with modern updates. It has a devoted following among the city’s literati who care about its fate.
Orlean has created a book as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library.