Topherlytle
I've wanted to read The Library Book ever since I first heard about its publication several years ago. Growing up in Southern California, I have vague childhood memories of the Los Angeles Central Library fire and the massive recovery effort that followed. Pair that with a lifelong love of reading, and this book seemed like a natural fit.
Which makes my disappointment all the more palpable.
It's not a bad book by any means, it's well-researched and well-written. But the execution didn't fully resonate with me. The narrative often felt unwieldy, as if the author tried to include too much, pulling the story in several directions at once.
The book is at its best when focused on the fire itself, the history of the Los Angeles Central Library, and the ensuing trial. Where it faltered, for me, was in its constant broadening of scope, covering general information about libraries, library struggles, and librarians. While those are interesting topics in their own right, here they felt shoehorned in, more like pontification than support for any form of central narrative. As a result, some moments that deserved deeper exploration were only briefly touched upon before the story moved on while others dragged on or completely stopped any form of narrative momentum.
I don't regret reading The Library Book. It simply wasn't what I thought, or hoped, it would be. 3.5
I've wanted to read The Library Book ever since I first heard about its publication several years ago. Growing up in Southern California, I have vague childhood memories of the Los Angeles Central Library fire and the massive recovery effort that followed. Pair that with a lifelong love of reading, and this book seemed like a natural fit.
Which makes my disappointment all the more palpable.
It's not a bad book by any means, it's well-researched and well-written. But the execution didn't fully resonate with me. The narrative often felt unwieldy, as if the author tried to include too much, pulling the story in several directions at once.
The book is at its best when focused on the fire itself, the history of the Los Angeles Central Library, and the ensuing trial. Where it faltered, for me, was in its constant broadening of scope, covering general information about libraries, library struggles, and librarians. While those are interesting topics in their own right, here they felt shoehorned in, more like pontification than support for any form of central narrative. As a result, some moments that deserved deeper exploration were only briefly touched upon before the story moved on while others dragged on or completely stopped any form of narrative momentum.
I don't regret reading The Library Book. It simply wasn't what I thought, or hoped, it would be. 3.5