I enjoyed the story, I can't wait to revisit the Morgan's Library after reading this book. It is well written, however one star off is for too much emphasizing her integration in the world. I understand it was based on 1920ish events but I still believe it was a little bit too many times brought this subject up. ( )

This is a fictionalized version of the life of Belle da Costa Greene, and I was not impressed. The writing style, particularly the dialogue, was quite stilted; characters often seemed to lecture rather than converse. The narrative was flat, and often repetitive. Even though the story was told from Belle's point of view, she was drawn in a very superficial manner, seeing everything through the lens of trying to hide her race. But she was a much more complex person, and it seems unlikely that that was always at the forefront of her thoughts and the motivation for her behavior. The other characters, J.P. Morgan and his children, the Berensons, were also one-dimensional. Had the book been written in the third person, they might have been more fully fleshed out.

And the authors admit to something that I absolutely loathe in historical fiction, and that is "taking liberties with historical dates and details", for no apparent reason. Worst of these is their admission that they chose to create an end to Greene's relationship with the art historian Bernard Berenson "as we wished Belle had", rather than rely on the truth. They ignore Belle's ambivalence regarding women's rights; for example, she was, for a time, a member of the Anti-Suffrage League, though you'd never know it from this book.

If you really want to know about her, read Heidi Ardizzone's biography, "An Illuminated Life": https://www.librarything.com/work/1109285/book/46226103 and Katherine Chaddock's biography of Greene's father, "Uncompromising Activist: Richard Greener, First Black Graduate of Harvard College": https://www.librarything.com/work/19805709

Belle obeys her mother and passes for white in order to live the life she loves. She gets a position as the persona librarian of JP Morgan and is instrumental for building that library to what it is today. ( )

Great story, adequate writing, stylistically not to my taste. I recommend reading although caution the reader it will be a fairly average experience. Parts were touching, while other parts seemed poorly edited and could be framed better. ( )

A fine read. My overriding memory of this book is how it reminded me of how little progress we have made in matters of race and white supremacy.
Belle was a remarkable person. ( )