Anne Youngson

This is just what I wanted.

I love epistolary novels. A story in letters creates a novel that is immediately intimate. Meet Me at the Museum is well-crafted and heartfelt without being maudlin or sentimental.

Tina Hopgood, farm wife in East Anglia, writes to Dr. Glob in Denmark, a professor who dedicated a book about The Tollund Man to her and her classmates when she was a girl. Dr. Glob is deceased, so the curator of the museum, Anders Larsen, responds to Tina’s inquiry, which at first show more sparks a casual, friendly correspondence that soon blossoms into letters between two lonely people confiding their fears, regrets, and hopes to one another.

Anders and Tina are both in their 60s, a time of life, Anders explains, where there is more behind them than ahead of them, and yet there’s still time to make a change. Anders is widowed and his children have grown up and moved away. He is alone, and lonely. Tina is married with a farm full of her children and grandchildren, and yet she is also alone and lonely. The both find the companionship they never had in one another.

The ideas explored in this book were profound: feeling alone in a crowded room, questioning life decisions and wondering if those choices mattered, being overwhelmed with noticing things one once took for granted. This book is far from being trite; it offers insight into the big questions that are revealed when one takes a step away from the mundane.

It is a beautiful book. At fewer than 300 pages, there is still enough substance within the letters to gradually develop a relationship that is succinct and revelatory, and the denouement is satisfying without giving away too much.

Highly recommended if you enjoyed 84, Charing Cross Road or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Meet Me at the Museum is a stellar example of all that can be accomplished with letters.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for the advance copy in exchange for my review. show less

There is a lot to admire in Meet Me at the Museum. For one thing, it's an epistolary novel. I love them, but they don't show up too often these days. The story focuses on the correspondence between a farmer's wife living in northern England and a curator at a Danish Museum. Tina's best friend, Bella, recently died. Ever since they were girls at school and studied the Tollund Man, they planned to go to Denmark to see him, but somehow the time was never right. Tina writes to the museum with show more some questions and is answered by Anders, an archaeologist at the Silkeborg Museum. Thus begins a correspondence that develops into a deep friendship.

The second thing I really liked about this novel is the way that, in corresponding with one another, Tina and Anders begin to re-examine their lives, their dreams, their life philosophies--in short, their very selves. Writing each letter becomes almost a form of self-exploration. Although these two characters seem very different at the outset, as their friendship develops, we--and they--learn that they are much more alike than it wouuld at first appear.

The third thing I like is that the book demonstrates what it means to have a truly deep friendship. Tina discusses her long friendship with Bella, but we also see her friendship with Anders as it grows.

So what didn't I like? Well, the ending. Unfortunately, in an otherwise unique book, the author took the easy way out and gave us a stereotypical ending, when there were so many other rewarding ways in which it could have gone. That's why I can only give this novel 4 stars, and I was considering going down to 3. show less

Another winner from LT! I loved this book and I’m going to buy a copy to have on my shelves.

I really enjoy epistolary novels, and this one tugged at me harder than most because one of my closest friends lives in Denmark and he and I have been corresponding for years, so the parallel pushed it up that extra half star.

If you don’t have a friend in Denmark you correspond with, it’s still a good book. I’m not sure how to describe it really, except to say it feels like a very realistic show more correspondence between two people who have never met, yet have become close. There’s a hesitation, a caution, in the sharing of opinions that rings true and the storylines that slowly and subtly unfold are the storylines that unfold everyday, everywhere.

There’s no happy ending, but there’s no unhappy ending either. It ends with hope. A genuinely lovely story. show less

Eve Warburton and Sally Allsop didn’t usually walk on the towpath, but today was different. Strangers to one another, soon to pass as they walked in opposite directions. However, they couldn’t help but talk to one another, questioning ear-splitting noise from a narrowboat they were about to pass as it was parked on the side of the canal. After the noise, sitting together and discussing their actions of spontaneity, the boat owner returns. Eve and Sally learn her name is Anastasia, and show more the name of the noise now missing is Noah. Waiting for Noah, Anatasia, Eve, and Sally have tea together on “Number One.” Tea and conversation. A conversation that leads to Anatasia’s proposal. A proposal that changes all their lives. Easy.

Browsing on my Kindle, I was drawn to pause to enjoy the beautiful watercolor of the designed book cover that welcomed thoughts of summer on a narrowboat. As I wondered what the story might be, I added the title to my tbr list without reading the description. I later realized that I had read the author’s debut novel, “Meet Me at the Museum,” and I was even more excited to read the book. I loved this story, too, for entirely different reasons.

As the 3 women embark on the following weeks of their lives, the reader discovers more about their past life experiences and relationships simultaneous to moving forward. It is a story of friendship but so much more. It brings to life the questions women ask themselves instigated by a life-threatening diagnosis, or the loss of a job, or the boredom of routine as the remains of an empty nest might not be enough. It is the strength and courage to embrace change. It is trusting another to speak freely, to listen and reply unfiltered, even if the conversation sometimes ends abruptly.

With atmospheric writing, the reader is showered with the intricacies of living on a narrowboat, from the work of traversing the canal locks of England to experiences along the way from the beauty of nature to meeting other boat owners to shopping in small towns for groceries, or for the change of eating a meal at a pub.

A well-written story, beautifully simple, and beautifully complex. I didn’t want the journey to end. I hope my review entices you to step onto Anatasia’s narrowboat.

Discussion Questions are available at the end of the novel. show less