The Library Book

Usually when I start complaining about a book feeling disjointed, I start thinking about how it could have been rearranged better so it would have felt more cohesive, and I usually wind up frustrated because I can't think of a better way. BUT! I have solved my own problem with The Library Book! I wish this had been a series of vignettes in a different order — one about the fire itself, one about the arson case and its lack of resolution, one about the man suspected of the arson — and then once the reader is expecting little vignettes instead of one big narrative (as I was, going in), then it's a perfect fit for a section to talk about the history of the L.A. library building, one for homelessness as a library issue, one about the history of the librarians and the sexism that pervaded libraries everything, etc.

Because in truth, each of these sections were interesting, and I enjoyed learning about them even though I have zero ties to Los Angeles, but Orlean jumped around in time/subject so much that we're reading about Suspected Arsonist Harry Payne (sp? I listened to the audio) in the beginning of the book and in the last chapter too, and there just was not enough about the fire itself to be a whole book, and that was the book I thought I was getting.

(Though mad respect for the former librarian who decided he'd walk across America to get to his new job instead of doing something reasonable like taking the train, and that he chose clothes that he liked but that were ridiculed by everyone else. Young Allie had a thing for weird clothes.)