The Librarian of Burned Books: A Novel

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 10

Chapters 11-21

Chapters 22-34

Chapters 35-43

Chapter 44-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

The Restorative Power of Reading

The Librarian of Burned Books is primarily a testament to the power of the written word. This applies predominantly to books, but also to the letters the ASEs authors receive from soldiers abroad. Over and over, books are presented as a unifying force greater than their tangible accumulated materials: “What Viv loved best, though, was the general consensus that books were not just books. They were stories that helped the exhausted men overseas remember what they were fighting for—freedom of thought, American values, anti-fascism sentiment” (370-371).

Although every one of the protagonists has some connection with reading, the clearest example of this is Althea, whose path in life is largely determined by her relationship with books. Her debut novel is the instigating force behind her voyage to Germany, and she uses books as a lens through which to see the world, particularly in times of crisis: “As she often did when she was flustered, Althea tried to imagine she was writing instead of living this scene. What would she do if she were the main character instead of the dowdy friend there simply to add contrast, if she were Lizzy Bennet instead of Charlotte Collins?” (16). They become a tool from which she draws strength and comfort when the world becomes too intimidating. This is why the book burning fires are so decimating for her. However, when she rescues a copy of Alice in Wonderland from the flames, she begins her journey to retribution.

Viv’s journey is also ultimately tied up with books, although she champions them not as a creator but as a liaison and spokeswoman. She argues that reading is an essential part of upholding soldiers' morale and reminding them what they’re fighting for. Through her fight to protect the ASEs initiative, she uncovers multiple instances in which people have felt themselves empowered by the act of reading. When she encounters resistance in her attempt to enlist Althea in her efforts, she wins her over by sharing letters written by soldiers who have read her book.

In this way, the restorative act of reading becomes twofold: The soldiers are given a new sense of strength and belonging by reading Althea’s book (and many others, equally as powerful); then, they pass this same sense of strength and belonging onto Althea through her act of reading their letters. In both cases, reading became a way to link people together across time in a symbiotic partnership of renewal.

Hope and Human Endurance

Throughout the novel, central and secondary characters face unspeakable horrors and violence. However, many of them find sources of hope and ways to endure despite what they have experienced.

Althea finds her faith in humanity and herself shattered when her fairy-tale worldview is upended by the realities she encounters. Her time in Germany is ultimately tragic, resulting in her losing not only the love she found but also her belief in the inherent goodness and rightness of the world. It’s not until much later, when she is brought into Viv’s crusade against oppression, that she’s able to renew her sense of hope and sense of self. This suggests that, although buried, her inner hope and endurance never completely disappeared after all, which in turn suggests that hope is more resilient than it would immediately appear.

This idea is also present in the communications from soldiers abroad who find sources of hope in the Armed Services Editions: “He read the first chapter, then the second. Then he said, he’d read more the next night, if we all survived. And for the first time since I got off the boats, I actually wanted to survive” (333). In this moment, a man discovers the hope he thought he had lost was still there waiting for him.

Viv is another character whose actions represent hope for a better future. Unlike Althea and Hannah, her story is positioned at the end of the war in a time of dramatic upheaval and change. At this point in time, people who had grown up in unprecedented darkness were beginning to look towards a better future. This is illustrated most clearly in Viv’s episodic scene in which she and Hale join a baseball game. The children they play with are young enough that they would have no memory of a life preceding the war; and yet, they manage to find within themselves the capacity for hope and joy: “Too often, when Viv was with girls and boys their age, they wore the serious faces of children forced to grow old too soon. But these boys were alight with the simple summer pleasure of baseball in the street, their smiles almost too big to bear” (210).

By deciding to live in the present moment, Viv, Hale, the children, and the neighbors who have become their audience all reconnect with their sense of hope and inner strength: “It had been such a long war, so many years of hardship, of sacrifice, of fear and loss and pain and the dull monotony of helplessness. But none of that had crushed them completely” (213-14). It is through small moments like this one that humanity’s capacity to endure is conveyed most vibrantly.

The Dangers of Censorship and Oppression

In contrast to the novel’s more positive themes, it also deals strongly with censorship and contention in response to minority groups. Hitler’s followers rule strongly and, for a time, effectively, because they create a sense of fear around the unknown. Jews are the obvious target of this needless hatred, but it soon seeps into anyone and any idea that represents the “other.” This includes those of the LGBTQ community as well as those with contrasting social or political beliefs. Hannah, as a Jew and a lesbian, is forced to hide her core identity in order to survive in her home country.

To keep people oppressed, political leaders instigate the contentious book burnings that give the book its title and which have become one of modern history’s darkest moments. Countless books are decimated in the name of creating a true and “pure” Germany, and yet the books themselves are only symbols of something bigger. When Althea rescues Alice in Wonderland, she reflects that the book must have been added by accident because it contains no directly inflammatory material. This suggests that the titles of the individual books matter less than what they represent as a whole: “This wasn’t just some pointless rally, this wasn’t just people whipped up into a frothing roar because of mostly empty words spoken by a strong orator. This was the gleeful destruction of knowledge, of science, of poetry, of love” (269).

This oppression of knowledge repeats a decade later when Senator Taft attempts to block the Armed Services Editions, stating that many are inappropriate for soldiers to be reading. Viv points out that his “language is too broad” (9), allowing any book deemed unsuitable for any reason to be censored. This would give Taft’s party ultimate power over the ability to access and share knowledge. Although Joseph Goebbels approached censorship through violent destruction, and Taft approached censorship through subversive legislation, each embarks with the same ultimate goal: to keep people compliant and in need of guidance. In these ways, the novel explores how dangerous censorship and oppression can be to both books and people.