I became kind of fixated on figuring him out, but never really did.New Yorker staff writer Orlean ( Rin Tin Tin) doubles as an investigative reporter and an institutional historian in this sprawling account of the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Central Public Library. And he was in the first wave of people infected with AIDS. He was a yarn spinner-his sister called him the best bullshitter ever. But still, Harry is an archetypal character in so many ways. He’s been dead for 25 years, and still no one knows whether he was the arsonist-or whether there even was one.Įvery time I thought I had cracked the case, something poked a hole in my theory. Peak changed his story many times, and no forensics linked him to the scene. Only one suspect was under serious investigation for the crime at the heart of this book: Harry Peak, a blond, handsome, gay drifter who yearned to be a star.

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Libraries are busy places, but soothing, too. Looking for information there is so different from surfing the internet, which can feel untethered and chaotic.

Simply being in a library gives us the sense that we have access to all the knowledge in the world. John Szabo, the current head of Central, views libraries as the people’s university-apolitical spaces where no one is being judged. Yes, and they keep evolving as town squares where diverse communities can share and access information. Some have people lining up for hours before opening time, waiting to get in. They now service the homeless, offer classes for non-English speakers, provide after-school care to kids, host movie screenings, and much else, as you found. Libraries today go beyond their original mission as book lenders and literacy champions. After we left, I loved being in the car with all the books we’d gotten piled on my lap, discussing what we’d taken out and in what order we’d read them. I can still hear the chunk-chunk sound of the due date stamp. Then my mom and I would reunite at the circulation desk. Even at age 4 or 5, I could wander off on my own once inside. The Shaker Heights, Ohio, library might have been the first place I was given autonomy. You write that the memory of childhood trips to the library remains sacred to you.

Susan orlean the library book review