In Senegal, the polite expression for saying someone died is to say his or her library has burned.

Ask me if I enjoyed The Library Book by Susan Orlean and the answer will be a resounding yes. And yet… it took me ages to read it.

There are two threads to this book – the true crime element relating to the devastating Los Angeles Public Library fire in 1986, and the history of the Library, which begins in 1880. In recounting the history, Orlean also examines how library services across the world have evolved to meet changing social demands.

Orlean writes about the fire in a compelling way – narrative nonfiction at its finest.

At first, the smoke in the Fiction stacks was as pale as onionskin. Then it deepened to dove gray. Then it turned black. It wound around Fiction A through L, curling in lazy ringlets. It gathered into soft puffs that bobbed and banked against shelves like bumper cars. Suddenly, sharp fingers of flame shot through the smoke and jabbed upward. More flames erupted. The heat built. The temperature reached 451 degrees and the books began smouldering.

After a lengthy investigation, it was still unclear whether the fire started by accident or whether it was deliberately lit. Orlean notes that of all major criminal offenses, arson is the least successfully prosecuted (because the evidence is usually destroyed!). Investigators had one suspect – a would-be actor named Harry Peak – whose story changed every time he was questioned. The case dragged on for many years.

There was so much about this book that I enjoyed –

01. Orlean’s personal relationship with libraries (‘…the library might have been the first place I was ever given autonomy…’ – a sentiment I identify with).

My mother then always mentioned that if she could have chosen any profession at all, she would have chosen to be a librarian, and the car would grow silent for a moment as we both considered what an amazing thing that would have been.

02. The logistics associated with fighting the 1986 fire.

…but their biggest hoses, swollen stiff with water, couldn’t make the sharp turns in the tight stairways.

Interestingly, most libraries aren’t designed to manage a fire – the main threat to a library is water damage (so automatic sprinklers aren’t necessarily there). During the 1986 fire, the stacks of books created flues (and the books provided the perfect fuel), making the fire burn even more ferociously – ‘ …In the stacks, with their open grid of shelving, the fire rose up while the water flooded down…’

03. The stats associated with the 1986 fire. Astounding.

• within one hour of the fire beginning, more than half the fire department resources in the entire city of Los Angeles was deployed to the Library fire, including 350 firefighters, nine ambulances, three helicopters and the arson unit. The fire raged for seven hours and 38 minutes.
• ‘…the temperature reached 2000 degrees. Then it rose to 2500. The firefighters began to worry about a flashover, a dreaded situation during a fire in which everything in a closed space – even smoke – becomes so hot that it reaches the point of spontaneous ignition, causing a complete and consuming eruption of fire from every surface. As firefighters put it, it’s the moment when a fire in a room is transformed into a room on fire.’
• what was lost: a volume of Don Quixote from 1860. A book by architect Andrea Palladio from the 1500s. All of the books about the Bible, Christianity and church history. All biographies of subjects H through K. All American and British plays. All theatre history. All Shakespeare. Ninety thousand books about computers, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, engineering, and metallurgy. 5.5 million American and Canadian patent listings dating from 1799. Forty-five thousand works of literature, authors A through L. Twelve thousand cookbooks. All of the art periodicals and every single art book printed on glossy paper (which dissolves into a gluey mush when exposed to water). Three quarters of the library’s microfilm. The information labels on 20,000 photographs… and much more.

04. The efforts to save the burnt books.

• Fire damaged books were frozen until they could be assessed and restored (or discarded). Los Angeles has a multi-million dollar fish-processing industry, which includes huge freezers. The fish industry lent a hand 🙂

05. The quirky characters that have been ‘Head Librarian’ at Los Angeles Public Library over the years. My favourite was Lummis.

It was the Lummis family home, but it was also the site of constant gatherings of artists and writers. Lummis nicknamed his parties ‘noises’.  Some of the noises were Spanish-themed, with troubadours and traditional food. Others were mock trials in which Lummis accused one of the guests of not knowing how to have fun.

There’s a lot more to The Library Book, including the challenging issue of libraries being homeless outreach services (…a library is a good place to soften solitude…); how they have changed their services to adapt to new information technologies; and the role of libraries during war.

Burning books is an inefficient way to conduct a war, since books and libraries have no military value, but it is a devastating act. Destroying a library is a kind of terrorism.

While it’s all very interesting, I kept losing momentum when the narrative switched between the history and true crime elements. I feel like I may have undersold this book, and I really don’t want this review to leave that impression, because I have in fact learnt so much.

3.5/5

As part of the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge, I’m comparing the Belfast summer and Melburnian winter. The results for the day I finished this book (July 21): Belfast 10°-17° and Melbourne 8°-16°.

…Arin Kasparian was making sandwiches at Subway. He didn’t think of it as a permanent career, but he was settling into the Subway life so comfortably that his mother began to worry. She wanted him to do something more worthwhile than making meatball marinara foot-longs, so she urged him to apply for a job at the library.