A short memoir of a girl and her growing up story. It wonderfully performed by Sharon in audio. ( )

This was a good listen, but I was a little distracted from it after the masterpiece of Boys & Girls. I will though always remember “feeding the Dragon,” the boxes in the closet, and envy of living in a library. ( )

I saw Sharon Washinton perform Feeding the Dragon at the Hartford Stage Company in 2018, and I was so impressed. First of all, I never realized that there were apartments in the New York Public Library branches. Secondly, I began to understand code-switching after hearing this masterpiece. The way Washington describes her family life at the St. Agnes branch of the NYC Library is eye-opening, and the Audible rendition is as rapturing as the stage production. The literal dragon that her father feeds is the old furnace that needs to be fed coal to keep the library warm. Although the family is not living in heavenly bliss, Sharon takes advantage of the times that the library is closed to explore books that profoundly influence her life. She refers to various books, poems, and authors during her magical fairy tale upbringing, which, in retrospect, she would like to take precedence over the struggles and secrets. Sharon is a talented writer and performer who uses the title’s dragon in multiple ways that become clear as the story progresses.

I was reminded of this after reading Fiona Davis's Lions of Fith Avenue—a similar setting of family life in the New York Public Library. There were also some similar themes.
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Memoir as Stage Play
Review of the Audible Original audiobook (June 2018) based on the author's stage play

Feeding the Dragon is a memoir by actress Sharon Washington that is performed as a one-woman stage play. The Dragon of the title is the nickname for the furnace in the New York City Public Library which has to be maintained by Washington's janitor father. In that era, the janitor's family was provided with an apartment on the top floor of the library and so Washington grows up as the little girl who lived in the library. Although that may sound idyllic, there is a dark side to the story as well and the title Dragon may also refer to the hidden demon of her father's alcoholism which brings conflict into the situation.

The story was well done and Sharon Washington's narration in all voices was excellent.

I had missed Feeding the Dragon when it was first released as an Audible Original in 2018, but I was lucky enough to catch up to it in Audible's recent offering of 9 free Theater releases at Audible Theater. The offer still appears to be available as of late April 2020 but possibly not for too much longer. ( )

A wonderful memoir written in a narrative style.
This is an Audible Original, I think it was only released on audio. I love the writing style, and her voices and characters throughout the story. In 1970s New York City, Washington's father tended the furnace in a New York library, and her family lived on the floor above the library.
She talks about her love affair with books, and the creepy old furnace her father fed in the basement, like a hungry dragon.
There is some heavier subject matter as well, but I appreciated the whimsy and the character of the inanimate objects and buildings. ( )