Running the Books, by Avi Steinberg

I've been reading Avi Steinberg's 2010 memoir Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian for our mystery group. Today I finished it, which is good, since we meet tonight. I was really looking forward to this book for a couple of reasons. First, I'm an accidental librarian myself, although in a public library and medical library setting. I wanted to see how his experiences in the profession paralleled my own. To a certain extent, they did. There's that feeling of being out of your depth that you have in the beginning when you're not quite sure how things work. You do eventually get your bearings, though. Working in a prison library has very different dynamics than any other library, and it was fascinating to see how power and authority, and patron relationships play out in that environment. Very different from my experience, and I'm not sure I could have adapted as well as Steinberg did to such unique circumstances. The second thing that really interested my was why a "good Jewish boy" would go into such a line of work. Although Steinberg is nonpracticing and never comes right out and says it, by the end of the book it's clear that he feels a sense of duty imposed by his heritage, a feeling of tikkun olam (restoring the world). This comes through most clearly when he writes about prisoners he has gotten close to, only to lose them to violence. Those are probably some of the most moving parts of the book.

Not that everything in Running the Books is somber. There are a lot of light-hearted moments, such as his descriptions of some of the more interesting (outrageous?) characters he meets. From C.C. Too Sweet to the mean girl hookers and more, there's lots of entertainment here. One of the high points of the book for me is Steinberg's writing. As in this sample, it can be very lyrical.

Standing apart from the crowd, on the side of the steps toward the prison tower, is a young mother. It is unclear at first why she is standing there. Suddenly, she lifts a tightly swaddled infant over her head, as though presenting the child to the tower itself, offering her baby up to some remote mountain deity. The contrast is startling: the baby, limb-heavy and soft as wet cotton, hoisted up against the cold wind and a tower that bears down massively. It's almost as though she's trying to make a point about the overwhelming fragility of this creature in her hands. For a moment, I fear irrationally, for the infant's life, as if it's about to be crushed by the tower.

Most of the book is like that: poetic writing, strong imagery, and memorable characterizations. I found that the book lagged some in the last third. It felt a little slow at times, and I couldn't always get the point of the narrative. The final scenes after Steinberg has quit the prison library and is visiting the Boston Public Library, though, were among the best and gave the book a strong finish.

Overall, I give the book four of five stars, and would very much enjoy reading more of Steinberg's work. I recommend this book to those interested in prisons or libraries, to those who enjoy memoirs, and anyone who likes "human interest" writing.

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, by Avi Steinberg (Nan A. Talese, 2010, 978-0385529099, 416 pp.)