The Personal Librarian: A Book Review
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray Published by Penguin on June 29, 2021
Genres: Fiction / African American & Black / Women, Fiction / Biographical, Fiction / Historical / General
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover
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The Instant New York Times Bestseller! A Good Morning America* Book Club Pick!
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR! Named a Notable Book of the Year by the Washington Post!
“Historical fiction at its best!”*
A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.
In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection.
But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.
The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go to—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.
*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a small commission from the sale.
All it took for me to want to read this book was the title; if the name makes any reference to a library or a bookstore, I assume I will love it. And I’ve read other novels by Marie Benedict (The Mystery of Mrs. Christie — which again, I read just because of the title and really enjoyed), so my expectations were high.
And look at this fascinating woman — don’t you want to know all about her?
Perhaps my expectations were too high, because sadly, I just could not get into it. I could not get drawn into Belle’s story, which was weird because there was plenty of story to tell… but I just kept putting it down after reading only a chapter or two. It took a boring Sunday afternoon to finally force myself to sit down and finish, just to get the thing off my nightstand and move on.
I assume this is probably not the reader mindset the authors were going for.
I liked Belle. Well, almost — I appreciated her, is probably the better statement. She lived in a time when it was dangerous to embrace who she really was, and had to find the right way to navigate the Progressive Era’s high society without completely losing herself.
The problem is that the authors seemed to lean into the inner turmoil this situation would have caused, making Belle (and by extension the reader) just feel anxious almost all the time. She sparkled at dinner parties and the opera, flirted and teased with the upper crust, but the novel never seemed to let her relax. It created loads of tension, which was good…. but I never felt like I got to know who she was.
Huh. I guess just like everyone else who met her. So maybe the authors really did know what they were doing.
…I want everyone to understand that the Pierpont Morgan Library and its librarian are singular.
The Personal Librarian, pg. 80
A couple of things about this quote:
First, the authors did accomplish one thing — Belle is the single most interesting character in the novel.
Which, as I’ve already said, is problematic since we don’t really get to know her. And it’s really not a good sign for everyone else.
When basically the entire cast of characters are all real people with well-documented personalities and life events, it’s hard to drum up really good character arcs when there just aren’t any. Every one of them felt false, flat on the page, nothing to turn them into the living, breathing human they were once upon a time.
And throughout the novel there was too much emphasis on Belle’s romantic entanglements, none of whom were portrayed as interesting or even worthy of someone as intriguing as Belle. Not even 70-year-old J.P. Morgan himself — which the whole idea of was just … icky. I know, times were different then, and having gobs of money tends to increase your attractiveness, but:
’nuff said.
And second, it’s just semantics, but I can’t let it pass: Belle is not a librarian. At least, not the way she’s written in this novel.
I could almost call her an archivist because she’s dealing with unique artifacts, works that need to be protected and cared for — but then, she doesn’t seem to do any of the protecting or caring for.
She’s portrayed as more of an art dealer, someone who is super duper amazing at acquiring items for Mr. Morgan’s collection but not so much interested in the actual items themselves. Except for one brief scene where she does a quick check to see if a book is a forgery, there’s basically no reference to the real-life Belle’s vast knowledge of art, history, books, or the like. That part of the character was simply discarded in exchange for run-of-the-mill romance.
At one point in the novel, Belle starts to interact more with the bohemians in Greenwich Village and I finally got excited. So many fascinating characters and interesting conversations could have been there… but instead we only get a bit of name-dropping of artists and suffragettes and actors. Again, all that potential just left on the table.
The only time it came close was when a young man sits down next to Belle, thinking of her as a white woman, and starts talking about the new book he’s reading, The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois:
Reading this has given me such insight into what it’s like to be black in this country. How black people must have two sets of eyes all the time, two fields of vision that are totally incongruent because they have to be mindful of how they see themselves, but that is most likely completely the opposite of how the world sees them. So it’s like walking a balancing act.
The Personal Librarian, pg. 265
It felt like a throwaway line, from an unnamed character in a single scene, unimportant to the rest of the story. But in two sentences he gave voice to Belle’s situation, the whole crux of the novel. It’s about this woman’s balancing act between black and white, the narrow tightrope that she walked to create a place for herself in a world where being black and being a woman meant she doesn’t matter. But instead she defied them all and should be celebrated.
I just really wish I liked her more.
I admit, I might be in the minority here. Other reviews of this book seem to really love it so maybe I’m just missing something here.
TL; DR: The Personal Librarian is a middling attempt to bring a well-needed spotlight to a historical figure who deserves more than what the reader is given.
So — have you read The Personal Librarian? What are your thoughts?
