Review: The Paris Library

I had been sitting with my copy of Janet Skeslien Charles' The Paris Library for almost a year before I finally read it. You see, the book was originally supposed to be released in 2020 but was only just published this month. I was even lucky enough to be able to get a physical ARC at the last event I attended in early March 2020 before the world shut down. I enjoyed hearing from Skeslien Charles herself and looked forward to reading her book. Fast forward eleven months and I enjoyed my time spent getting lost in Paris as I read the novel.

Here's the synopsis:

Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal.
Montana, 1983: Lily is a lonely teenager looking for adventure in small-town Montana. Her interest is piqued by her solitary, elderly neighbor. As Lily uncovers more about her neighbor’s mysterious past, she finds that they share a love of language, the same longings, and the same intense jealousy, never suspecting that a dark secret from the past connects them.
A powerful novel that explores the consequences of our choices and the relationships that make us who we are—family, friends, and favorite authors—The Paris Library shows that extraordinary heroism can sometimes be found in the quietest of places.

The cover and opening chapters of this novel are completely swoonworthy. Odile is a bookworm, desperate to work in her favourite place: the American Library in Paris. I completely identified with her love of reading, and even with hoping she'd be able to work at the library where she feels most at home as my first job was at my hometown library and I adored it. Skeslien Charles did the library (where she had worked herself years ago) credit and I really felt like I was there with Odile and the whole cast of characters who loved the library as much as she did. This love of books and the library being a sacred space was my favourite part of the whole novel.

This is a quiet historical novel. There isn't a whole lot that seems to happen - there are no battles being fought here - but everything changes over the course of the story. As the war begins, things gradually get deteriorate until Paris is occupied and German soldiers are crawling all over the city and imposing rules that impacted all citizens and the library. And things get even worse from there. Jewish subscribers were no longer welcome in the library and Miss Reeder (the real life American directress at the time) could not let that stand. The librarians arranged to deliver books to those who were no longer allowed into the library and continued to send books to soldiers when they could. It seems like such a small thing but they were risking their lives by doing this. They could have been arrested, or worse, for providing reading material, of all things, to Jewish subscribers or by having a banned book in their possession. Other libraries and museums had been pillaged already by the Nazis and Miss Reeder made sure to have some of their collection hidden in case their library was next. As we're learning now, during this pandemic, culture isn't going to cure us of COVID-19. It isn't going to feed us or find housing and safety for those who need it. But it is important for our mental wellbeing and we need libraries, and other institutions like them, to be around when we're finally able to emerge from this world we're living in right now. I think the librarians knew that, too.

I didn't like the dual timeline. I'm being increasingly picky when there is a historical and a present-ish day storyline woven together. I want it to have purpose and I didn't really feel like Lily's story in 1980s Montana really had a purpose. I wanted to know more about Odile and the secrets that she was apparently keeping but Lily's story didn't hook me. It was sort of clunky too and just didn't flow well. I would have much rather the story be told chronologically. Maybe in parts with the final part in 1983 as Lily helped Odile finally lay her ghosts to rest. I think this was a huge part of why I didn't like the book more than I did. I didn't want to be taken out of the story and I was whenever a chapter from the eighties came up. 

I wanted to love The Paris Library but it didn't quite make it. I would still recommend Janet Skeslien Charles' novel for those who want a different perspective on World War II and how difficult it would have been to live in Occupied Paris. I look forward to what she writes next!

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*