Book Review: The Library Book by Susan Orlean

By Benjamin L. Clark

The Library Book by Susan Orlean — This book was on some great end-of-year lists last year and for good reason. I had it on my shelf for a while waiting for “someday,” and, well, someday came. It’s an amazing book. Is it very, very long-form journalism, is it popular history? A twist on True Crime? Where does that line even exist? It doesn’t matter. Deeply, passionately researched, this is a love story. Not simply to the beautiful Central Library in downtown Los Angeles, but to libraries everywhere, to the librarians who made and make them what they are, and most of all to the libraries of our hearts.

Burning the Library

The story of the 1986 fire that became one of the largest single-event losses of print culture in human history is the burning hoop that keeps this story together, fueled by the clear-eyed curiosity of Susan Orlean. Orlean is present in the story, but with so much uncertainty around the fire, and around the man who was arrested for it, her voice is the anchor readers need. Harry Peak was arrested for starting the fire, but not charged and eventually released has a slippery historical record, but a fascinating and in the end, sympathetic story. He died in 1993. Though the case remains unsolved, Orlean has done an incredible job taking the scraps and bits, talking to…