The Library Book by Susan Orleans - A Review

"I have always imagined Paradise as a kind of library" - Jorge Luis Borges

Our author chooses the above quote as one of her epigraphs, then deftly draws us into the 1986 conflagration of the Los Angeles Public Library. Within an appropriately colored fire engine red book, replete with a flame symbol, Ms. Orleans delves into the specifics of this devastating fire, its possible causes, aftermath, and Library re-opening seven years later on October 3, 1993.
The mysterious cause of this massive event remains unsolved to this day and is considered to be the most catastrophic fire of a library building in the US. Eclipsed by the nuclear reactor meltdown in Chernobyl three days earlier and the subsequent stock market crash, the news of the Los Angeles Public Library fire was relegated to the sidelines.
Exhaustively researched, the sequence of events as they unfolded that dreadful day, the following political ramifications, and hunt for a suspected arsonist make for an exciting read. In fact, you might never think of our local public library in the same way again, especially when it comes to some of the questions that are asked at the reference desk! A copy of this book is now in our MVGH Library.

--Helen Baatz