The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot

Lenni is 17 and a patient in the terminal ward of a Glasgow hospital. Margot is 83 and a patient in the same hospital, awaiting heart surgery. This is the story of their friendship and of how they ended up sharing their collective 100 years with each other.

An excellent story (or pair of stories, really), beautifully told. Both Lenni and Margot are fascinating and wonderful characters, and they’re so well drawn that you quickly feel that they’re your friends as well, which makes losing them all the tougher. I haven’t full-on wept because of a book in a long time, but I cried for this one and I don’t regret a second of it.

Sometimes along comes a book that is absolutely perfect in every way. The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot is that book for me. Not a word is wasted or out of place, and there was never, not for one second, a moment when I wanted to skip a bit or thought a section didn't work. It really is just perfect.

Lenni is 17, Margot is 83. Between them they have 100 years of memories. They meet in hospital where Lenni is on the May Ward (everybody knows that is not a good place to be) and Margot is on a neighbouring ward. An unusual meeting becomes an unlikely, yet beautiful, friendship and after joining the hospital's art therapy class they decide to paint a picture for every year of their lives.

What this leads to is the sharing of their show more personal stories, with each other and with the reader. Inevitably Margot has the most stories to tell but Lenni also has her fair share. Some stories are uplifting, some are heartbreaking, but each helps to build up the overall picture. I thought the author did some very clever weaving, bringing some strands full circle in ways I didn't expect, and her expert storytelling made each one completely breath-taking.

The two main characters are simply stunning creations. I started the book laughing out loud at Lenni's dry humour, particular with the hospital priest, Father Arthur, and ended it crying. But for all that it's Lenni's and Margot's stories that are the focus, each and every supporting character has their place, and is just as much a part of what makes this such an amazing read. This is exactly my kind of book, character led with dips into the past drip-feeding the story to me.

Why is it that the books that I love the most are the hardest to write about? Is it because I know that nothing I say can ever do them justice? I simply cannot put into words how much I loved this book and what an impact it made on me. It's a wonderful story of lives lived, however long they might be, and shows how everything that you experience, good or bad, makes you who you are. It is a tender exploration of friendship and love in all their different forms, beautifully written by Marianne Cronin, with characters who will stay with me. It really doesn't get any better than this. show less

I think perhaps I didn't love this book as much as my fellow members of The Book Hangout on Facebook, but it did make me a little teary and I do just adore the character of Lenni. The Margot storyline made me think of Penelope Lively's book, Moon Tiger, which I read last year.

And of course both make me think of my 89 year old mother, who didn't lead a life half as eventful as these old literary characters, but I know has a heart full of memory just the same. But my mother isn't nearly as resigned to mortality either, and thus these books make me sad but not the way the author intended.

Not that any of this drivel is likely to help another reader decide whether or not to read the book. Do it; it's lovely. Lenni's conversations with show more Arthur are full of such charm, it's worth any melancholy the book generates. show less

“You’re not dying. You’re living.”

“Living and dying are both complete mysteries, and you can’t know either until you have done both.”

I was initially disappointed with this story as I didn’t click with Lenni and thought I’d struggle to continue. I found her to be rather immature and precocious, but then I can’t imagine how 17 year old me would have reacted to the world if I were dying. Her interactions with Father Arthur were equally funny and frustrating, which helped her to grow on me.

Margot however was just my type of woman. She was clever, funny and a force to be reckoned with. Everything I aim to be at 83! I often pictured her as Lily Tomlin from Grace & Frankie, the type of women who knows that life is too show more short to hold-back and hide.

Whilst the ending is all too obvious from the bio, this isn’t a story purely about death and loss. It also has lots of love, friendship, laughter and life. I just hope that when my time comes I am able to look back with such perspective and know that I lived the life that I was meant to live. show less

“‘Do you know,’ she said slowly, ‘that the stars that we see the clearest are already dead?’
‘Well, that's depressing.’ I took my hand from hers. ‘No,’ she said gently, linking her arm through mine, ‘it's not depressing, it's beautiful. They've been gone for who knows how long, but we can still see them. They live on.' They live on” (265).

Unequivocally emotional and joyful, this book doesn’t ease you into the thick of it. From the beginning, you’re swimming in the dark depths of a black, inky sky full of sadness and bright celestial swirls. It’s emotively heavy with just enough levity intermixed throughout. It’s a book about dying that’s really more about living. A pleasant paradox—so much grief causing show more so much joy.

In a Glasgow terminal ward, 17-year-old Lenni befriends 83-year-old Margot in the hospital’s Rose Art Room, and through their nascent friendship, a series of stories unfolds, celebrating the life of these two and their collective 100 years. The stories are told intermittently, transporting us between past and present, piecing together two lives where sickness and death is just a part of their stories—not the defining feature.

This book made me laugh (all the scenes with Father Arthur) and made me cry (lots of traumas and triggers) and, magically, made me feel hopeful (even though there’s so much grieving and trauma). It’s a story that shows that you can still find hope and beauty and joy in even our worst moments, our most tragic stories. And it’s through stories—all the stories inside of us waiting to be told—that keep us alive long after we’ve taken our last breath.

“As long as men can breathe and eyes can see / so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” show less

“Somewhere, out in the world, are the people who touched us, or loved us, or ran from us. In that way we will live on. If you go to the places we have been, you might meet someone who passed us once in a corridor but forgot us before we were even gone. We are in the back of hundreds of people’s photographs—moving, talking, blurring into the background of a picture two strangers have framed on their living room mantelpiece. And in that way, we will live on too. But it isn’t enough. It isn’t enough to have been a particle in the great extant of existence. I want, we want, more. We want for people to know us, to know our story, to know who we are and who we will be. And after we’ve gone, to know who we were.”

At the onset we show more are introduced to seventeen year old Lenni Pettersson, a terminally ill patient in the May Ward of Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. She is smart, spirited and curious inspite of her “life-limiting” illness and takes every opportunity to engage with people around her including the nurses who are in charge of her care, fellow patients and the hospital chaplain Father Arthur who is often rendered speechless in the face of Lenni’s questions on faith and life. Eighty three year old Margot Macrae is a patient with a heart condition in the same hospital recovering from major surgery. She and Lenni become friends in an art class taught by the kind and friendly Pippa organized in the Rose room of the hospital. Realizing that they have lived for one hundred years between themselves they decide to share those one hundred years of life experiences through art and stories. As they share their stories while creating art that would represent those stories, we get know intimate details of Margot’s and Lenni’s lives. Margot has lived an eventful life and her narrative is laced with wit and wisdom and a touch of regret. With her, Lenni gets to experience much more than she could have expected in her seventeen years. Lenni, a straight shooter and not one to mince words, motivates Margot to look beyond whatever is holding her back to enjoy her remaining life to the fullest. Lenni’s mother abandoned her years ago and her father’s palpable grief at Lenni’s prognosis prompted her to limit his painful visits. Her friendship with Margot and interactions with Father Arthur, New Nurse , Pippa, Paul , Sunny and even the not so likeable Nurse Jacky fill her days and give her a sense of ‘family’ in her final days.

While there are moments of extreme sorrow , loss and grief, the beautiful moments of camaraderie and friendship will have you smiling through your tears. With a wonderful cast of characters , thought provoking dialogue and an engaging narrative, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin is a moving and emotional story that will stay with me for a long time. The author’s skillful storytelling turns what could have been a morbid tale of imminent death into a heart touching celebration of life with wit, wisdom and humor.

“We can’t know why you are dying in the same way that we can’t know why you are living. Living and dying are both complete mysteries, and you can’t know either until you have done both.” show less

I absolutely loved this book! I didn't know what to expect going in, I had seen it on a recommended title list. I am so glad that I picked up this charming and heartwarming novel.
It begins in a hospital with Lenni, a 17-year old terminally ill patient. Lenni has chats with Father Arthur, the Catholic priest who will be retiring soon. She also meets Margot, an 83-year old woman she saw reaching into the trash one day. Margot and Lenni get to know each other through an art class where they each tell the other about their life.
Such a beautiful book!

*2nd reading -- just as wonderful, if not more so, than the first time!