The persistence of memory

Writing a book, just like building a library, is an act of sheer defiance. It is a declaration that you believe in the persistence of memory.

Susan Orlean, The Library Book

Susan Orlean's The Library Book, a book about a library and about libraries in general, might be viewed as double defiance. That her book has become a best seller may make it a triple.

Memories are stored in books, and books are stored in libraries. When people die, their memories go with them, but that is not quite true of people who write. Some of their memories live on, assessable to anyone who finds their books, perhaps in a libraries, and reads them. We are still reading the thoughts of people like Shakespeare, Austen, Dickinson and Twain.

And so the burning of the Los Angeles Public Library on April 29, 1986, like the burning of many other libraries down through history, was a terrible insult to memory, as well as to history, civilization and every person who ever used or worked in that library.

Orlean uses that fire as the central element around which she weaves the story of that particular library, along with details about how libraries work, how they cope with a changing society (the homeless now use them as daytime hangouts) and what the future might look like for libraries.

The author herself tries to solve the mystery of the library fire, which destroyed some 400,000 books, as well as magazines, microfilm, maps and other items. Was it the result of arson? If it was set, then by whom? She has no better luck than the arson investigators. For years the prime suspect was a loopy young man named Harry Peak, who actually confessed to the crime. The trouble was Harry told a different story to everyone, including at least seven different stories to investigators and a judge. With so little evidence against him, he was never convicted, although he eventually received a $35,000 settlement from the library after a battle of lawsuits.

Some of Orlean's book becomes autobiography. She recalls being taken by her mother to the Shaker Heights Public Library near Cleveland, where she would excitedly gather books to read over the next several days. Now those fond memories are gathered in this book, her own personal act of defiance.