The Paris Library: A Novel

On August 24, the church bells of Paris ring. Paris is liberated. The Library’s remaining staff and patrons are jubilant and celebrate with champagne—all except Margaret, who is glum. Felix has been arrested, and Margaret’s husband is back living with her in Paris. To cheer Margaret up, Odile takes her on a walk through the gardens. When they see people marching in the distance, they assume it’s a parade and make their way toward it. Instead, it’s a mob. A man is holding a screaming infant, and its mother is being dragged behind it through the street, naked. The woman, labeled a harlot, had a German lover during the occupation. Blocks away, another such woman had her head shaved roughly on a scaffold. Margaret is “shaking.” 

Walking in a nice dress with a pearl necklace, which her mother gave her, Margaret comes upon Paul and his friend Philippe. Paul grabs her, and Margaret laughs, thinking that they’re celebrating the liberation. The laughter makes Paul angrier. He pushes her to the ground and accuses her of being “with some Fritz” (312). No one is there to help Margaret, and Paul takes the knife from Philippe.

Paul, “bathed in perspiration” (314), appears at Odile’s door and urges her to marry him right away. Odile is skeptical, and she wants her parents at the wedding and Margaret to be her matron of honor. However, Paul convinces her to elope, and they go to Paul’s aunt’s for their honeymoon. When they return to Paris, the Library throws a small party for them, with cake and drinks. Odile’s father and mother, as well as Eugénie, attend. It’s wonderful, but Odile asks why Margaret isn’t there. Bitsi says that Margaret didn’t reply to the invitation.

After the party, a worried Odile goes to Margaret’s apartment and discovers that only her maid is there and Margaret is in bed. Entering Margaret’s bedroom, Odile soon discovers that her friend has been beaten and her head roughly shaved. Lawrence has taken their daughter and his mistress to London and has threatened to expose Margaret as a harlot if she tries to get their daughter back. Margaret blames Odile for telling her secret to Paul. Telling Odile that she never wants to see her again, Margaret gives her a present, which Felix found for her—a red belt—and admonishes Odile to remember “what it means to be a true friend” (322) whenever she wears it.

Upset that Eleanor forbids smut reading, Lily runs to Odile to complain about the censorship. Odile gets Lily to understand that Eleanor has Lily’s best interest at heart. Odile encourages Lily to put herself in Eleanor’s skin and recognize that Eleanor must sometimes feel like an outsider. When she does so, Lily returns home and apologizes to Eleanor. To celebrate Lily getting her driver’s license, Odile takes her and Eleanor out for a sundae and gives Lily a French beret. Lily treasures it and wears it all the time.

The summer before her senior year, Lily works at a hotel with Mary Louise. When workers stay at the hotel, Mary Louise has a brief tryst with one of them. Lily, in contrast, gets only a kiss from another. During her senior year, Mary Louise spends a lot of time with her boyfriend, Keith. Lily is jealous. When Mary Louise invites her over to see her dress on prom night, Lily, who is not going to the prom, is reluctant. Odile encourages her to go over and accompanies her. Mary Louise looks stunning, and Lily seethes inside with jealousy. Odile stops Lily from telling Keith about Mary Louise’s tryst that summer with the worker.

Crushed by her betrayal of Margaret, Odile wanders the streets of Paris. She can’t return to the Library because if she did, Margaret couldn’t go there. Nor can she confess to her mother or Eugénie. Her jealousy of Margaret, bottled up inside her, caused her to write the equivalent of a crow letter and deliver it to a police officer, Paul, ruining Margaret’s life. Odile meanders to the American hospital and encounters staff who recognize her and ask if she’ll volunteer again. She does so and meets an American soldier from Montana. When he asks why she looks sad, she tells him that she has “done something terrible” (332). He understands and comforts her—and two days later proposes marriage. Odile accepts and sneaks back to the Library early in the morning to claim her suitcase and write a note to Bitsi.

When Odile learns what Lily almost told Keith, she tells Lily to treasure Mary Louise’s friendship and to keep her secrets. She warns Lily not to let resentment build. When Lily responds that she wants to run away, Odile tells her not to do so. For the first time in her life, Odile tells someone about her betrayal of Margaret. Odile tells Lily about it to prevent her from making the same mistake. After hearing the story, Lily notes that individuals are responsible for their actions and that Odile was not responsible for what Paul did. Odile has a clipping about Margaret, who now works as an artist at a Paris boutique. Lily urges Odile to write to Margaret.

Home alone, Odile lives in the past with her memories. She recalls meeting the parents of her American husband, Buck, for the first time. Resentful that Buck wasn’t going to marry his high school sweetheart, Jenny, they “never warmed” to Odile. However, Father Maloney was kind and hired her as church secretary. Odile found happiness with Buck and her son. She followed developments at the American Library in Paris by reading its column in the French newspaper. She missed her friends there and her husband and son. Sick of being alone, she picked up Buck’s gun. Thinking of what Margaret had said so many years ago, Paul “was the gun, you pulled the trigger” (342), Odile was about to shoot herself. It was just then that Lily knocked on her door for the first time, asking for an interview. Life offered Odile “an epilogue.” 

After Mass, the hall tables are decorated in the senior-class colors in honor of the upcoming graduation. Lily has been accepted to Columbia and Mary Louise to the New York Institute of Art. Both will head east at the end of summer. When Odile shuns ladies from the town, Lily asks her why she always does that. In answering, Odile admits that she’s being petulant for their actions of long ago, and she joins them at the coffee station.

Speaking at her graduation, Lily draws from the wisdom of Odile and her father. Both are proud of her. After celebrating with Lily’s family and friends, Odile gives her a ticket to Paris for the summer. Lily is thrilled and decides that she’ll go to the American Library. Odile isn’t going with her.