Victoria Christopher Murray

An entertaining and unobjectionable fictionalization of the true story of Belle da Costa Greene, the respected and celebrated librarian responsible for helping JP Morgan assemble his formidable library in turn-of-the-century New York - who was, in fact, Belle Greener, a black woman passing as white.

I'm always intrigued by the choices that authors make when fictionalizing historical personages. Authors Benedict and Murray have chosen perhaps the safest path, characterizing Greener as bold show more but not too bold (she's saucy but knows better than to offend her mentor), passionate but not too passionate, paranoid about being discovered but not so paranoid that she takes drastic precautions, such as disowning her family. Not that I'm dinging their choices. There's nothing here that feels offputtingly anachronistic, and Greene's struggle to reconcile the radical ideals of her father with the conservative rationalizations of her mother authentically represents both sides of the issue. Just saying that other authors might have crafted this into quite a different story ... something more nuanced and complex, but probably also harder to market.

And there's more here to enjoy than Greene's story. The authors have incorporated an exploration of the considerations involved in assembling & curating a large collection, insights into the history of rare manuscripts, and an opportunity to gape at the excesses of the uber-wealthy (the "red party" that Greene attends is particularly outrageous). All this was enough for me to forgive the relatively pedestrian writing style, shallow characterizations, and lackluster dialog.

While Benedict and Murray may have chosen a relatively safe and conservative interpretation of the historical facts, at least they've shaped them into an entertaining and informative read. show less

Interesting story of an intelligent, accomplishment woman of color who would not have been able to accomplish all that she did if anyone had known she was black. Yet another tale of the cost of American racism. Makes one wonder what else might have been achieved if the country had not banished 10% of its population to bigotry and invisibility. Speaking of which- why has Goodreads chosen not to list the black co-author of this book at all? Her name is on the cover of the book. Victoria show more Christopher Murray. Her picture is on the back flyleaf. With all due respect to the other author, who absolutely credits her co-author, it is undoubtedly Murray’s perspective that has informed the inner thoughts of the main character as she lives in fear of being discovered. Give credit where it is due, please. Victoria Christopher Murray. show less

My book club (IWBC — Interesting Women Book Club 😉 ) generally reads biographical fiction. We chose The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray because we have enjoyed novels by Benedict before and the subject matter, Belle de Costa Greene, was intriguing. We mostly liked the book — it was well-written and researched, even if we didn’t always like main character Belle. Belle is notable for being a highly influential black woman in the the art world of show more the early 1900s. However, no one, except her immediate family, knew she was black. She passed in order to achieve her dreams. The increased prejudice, even in the North, kept people of color from jobs and schools. Belle’s mother’s family was influential in the black community of D.C., but her mother did not think that was enough to protect her family. Belle walked a tightrope in her professional and personal lives, always on guard in an effort for her secret not to be found out. An added burden was that her father, Richard Greener, was a well-respected civil rights activist who opposed her mother’s decision for the family to live as white. There is definitely a lot of tension in the book. Belle yearns to be herself, yet knows that she can never disclose the truth of her heritage. As I said we mostly liked the book, but Belle was a frustrating character making terrible decisions in her romantic life. Because it is a biographical novel, The Personal Librarian also provides interesting looks into the lives of other famous people, J.P. Morgan for one. The book is an eye-opener and did foster a great deal of discussion about the time Belle lived in, the years in which we grew up, and modern-day struggles. Identity is often a buzz word today, but The Personal Librarian was a good look into how identity can determine one’s future path. We learned a lot from the book, as well as the Google searches the book inspired. 😉 I believe all of us would recommend this novel.

Recommended. (This is a general market novel and has adult situations and language, but is generally a clean read.)

Audience: Adults.

(I listened to the audiobook I purchased through Audible. All opinions expressed are mine alone.) show less

I listened to this on audiobook. I liked it, I didn't like it, I liked it, I didn't like it. In the end I think what I disliked the most was the voice of the reader! It is actually a very interesting story about Belle DeCosta Greene, the woman who went to work for J.P. Morgan in 1905, curating and expanding his collection of rare manuscripts. She was, by all accounts, extraordinary, not least because she was a very fair-skinned Black woman who passed as white and rose to a place of show more prominence that was rare for any woman at that time. She developed a very close relationship with Morgan; the book toyed around with the notion of a romantic attraction between the elderly Morgan and the young Greene, which I'm not sure was substantiated by evidence or was just fancy on the part of the authors. That was one of the things that I did not like. At any rate he put a great deal of trust in her over the years and she was unfailingly loyal to him. I think, had the book ended there, I would not have liked it at all. What I liked very much was how, after J.P. Morgan's death, Belle ultimately was instrumental in convincing Morgan's son and heir to open his father's priceless collection to the public (as it is to this day.) She may have spent her adult life moving among the upper echelons of American society, hobnobbing with the bastard capitalists who robbed US workers blind, but in the end leveraged her privilege into something quite astonishing.

SPOILER ALERT! Another thing that I was super annoyed by in the book was Greene's relationship with Bernard Berenson. Once again, it may been the reader's voice that annoyed me more than anything. That Greene even had a love affair with Berenson is uncertain. In the book Berenson, 20+ years Belle's senior, not only woos and seduces her, but when she becomes pregnant he pressures her into having an abortion which very nearly kills her. Did that really happen? I'm not sure. If it did not, if it was a literary device made up by the authors, then shame on them. As the SCOTUS is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, sending US women back to the days of illegal abortions, I do not need to read the trope about a woman spending her life regretting the *baby* she aborted. (I appreciated that she finally came to her senses about Berenson, the slimy weasel.)

Overall, I think that Belle DeCosta Greene/Belle Marion Greener's story is interesting enough to outweigh some of the problems in the telling. The Morgan Library has long been on my list of places to visit in NYC, and now I am even more eager to make that trip. show less