The Lions of Fith Avenue by bestseller author Fiona Davis is a multi-generational family story set around the love of books and libraries. At 80 years distance, the characters, predominantly women, do connect through an apparent mystery regarding rare books disappearing from New York Public Library.
It starts in 1913, with Laura Lyons, married with the library intendant, living with her two children, Pearl and Harry in an apartment within the library. What can be better than that? Her husband is working his novel, whila Laura has her own professional ambitions, dreaming to be a journalist. However, although she seems to be gifted and her curiosity lead her to writing some good pieces of articles, she is prevented from acquiring a degree at Columbia, because she dared to express her own opinions in her graduation paper. Meanwhile, some precious books disappear from the library and her husband is the main suspect.
80 years later, Pearl´s daughter, Sadie Donovan, is working at the same library, preparing an exhibition where she intends to include personal details about her grandmother she never met. Strangely, rare books are disappearing from the libray, some of them during her watch and it looks like she is under scrutiny as well.
What exactly happens and how cursed her family history is to repeat again eight decades later?
The idea of mixing a historical fiction with a little bit of mystery, on the backgrop of one of the world´s prestigious libraries was very appealing to me. I like all of them and although I am not a great consumer of historical fiction, I wanted to read this book. There are so many interesting elements of both narrative construction and character building, I was at a certain extent disappointed for a couple of reasons.
For instance, although the 1913- timeframe is very documented and detailed, with a considerate attention to characters and their development, I´ve found the ´contemporary´ episodes rather superficial, lacking consistency both from the point of view of the timeline as of the interior dynamic. Sadie Donovan, for instance, a 40 something librarian, looks completely imature and childish and her lifestory is reduced to her failures - particularly clumsiness around men and divorcee. Her mother, Pearl, although shortly a charactr in this second story line, is a sad grumpy old woman, lacking empaty, but at the same time also disconnected from the main story. Besides her being the daughter of the famous feminist writer Laura Lyons and being mentioned in the original story, there is no clear connection thread between the two characters.
In the original story - my favorite, not less - there are a couple of inadequacies, particularly when it comes to the doctors´ pledge for vaccines - typhoid vaccine. We may keep in mind that although this vaccine was in use since the end of the 19th century, it could not be offered en masse and the observations of the doctor while Laura was at the hospital with her son, Harry, suffering of typhoid, that as many should be vaccinated because it is an important scientific discovery, and there are no reason to be afraid of it, sounds rather as a Corona-vaxx story.
However, the eventful construction of the story, with unexpected turns and a surprising mystery solution, make the reading pleasant, the kind of pleasant that you may need when you are waiting in line for your test or while commuting.
The story it is based on some true facts: indeed, there used to be an apartment within the New York Public Library, and a similar theft of rare books took place in the 1990s at Columbia University´s Butler.
At the end of the book, there is a consistent guide aimed at book clubs, with questions and various details about the characters and the story and the main angles that can be followed during the discussions.
The Lions of Fifth Avenue is a useful book for the (extremely) critical historical fiction reader, but do shares some significant insights and values, among which, how hard is always for women to be acquired freedom, particularly when they dream to be as involved in changing the society as men.
Rating: 3 stars
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