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Loading... The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margotby Marianne Cronin
  
 lizallenknapp | Apr 20, 2024 |   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. (  ) electrascaife | Apr 1, 2024 | janismack | Mar 16, 2024 | However, this wore off quickly. In theory, books like this are beautiful, they talk about the beauty of life, friendship (found in the most unexpected places). Some passages were truly a joy to read. However, the book was very uneven in terms of quality. There were big parts of the novel describing Margot's life in some obscure moments that didn't really add much to the story, while I would have loved to see more conversations between Leni and Margot to add some depth to their relationship. Also, Lenni felt more like a younger child, not a 17-year-old. The art project got tedious after a while and I lost interest. Pushed through to finish, but it wasn't that great. I think the parts that really stuck with me are the ones describing dealing with PTSD (Margot's dad) and Alzheimer's (Humphrey) that were described in a touching way. (  ) ZeljanaMaricFerli | Mar 4, 2024 | At first, I loved the Maeve Binchey-like quality of this story, told from the first-person perspectives of two main characters. Lenni and Margot are extremely likeable, and the plot certainly held my interest. I even felt empathy for Margot when she lost her son, because I too lost a son as an infant. However, I did not appreciate the religious opinions expressed by the author, nor her inclusion of a homosexual element. Margot's character also irked me because it seemed as though she fell in love with anyone who showed even remote interest in her or was convenient at the time. Mina was no good for her, homosexuality aside. She was selfish and completely self-absorbed. I could never understand what Margot saw in her, as a friend or anything else. I also disliked the way in which the author portrayed nuclear families as being undesirable, and that on their deathbeds, Lenni and Humphrey expressed a wish to die alone with strangers rather than family. It's just another attempt to tear down the nuclear family and replace it with a surrogate family of one's own choosing. Quite tragic, really. So while the book had a lot of feel-good elements, I felt that the author's main purpose was to emotionally manipulate her audience and convince them to reject traditional religious and family values. (  ) silva_44 | Feb 22, 2024 | no reviews | add a review
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HTML: "A beautiful debut, funny, tender, and animated by a willingness to confront life's obstacles and find a way to survive. . . . It celebrates friendship, finds meaning in difficulty and lets the reader explore dark places while always allowing for the possibility of light. Lenni and Margot are fine companions for all our springtime journeys."�??Harper's Bazaar, UK A charming, fiercely alive and disarmingly funny debut novel in the vein of John Green, Rachel Joyce, and Jojo Moyes�??a brave testament to the power of living each day to the fullest, a tribute to the stories that we live, and a reminder of our unlimited capacity for friendship and love. An extraordinary friendship. A lifetime of stories. Seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson lives on the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. Though the teenager has been told she's dying, she still has plenty of living to do. Joining the hospital's arts and crafts class, she meets the magnificent Margot, an 83-year-old, purple-pajama-wearing, fruitcake-eating rebel, who transforms Lenni in ways she never imagined. As their friendship blooms, a world of stories opens for these unlikely companions who, between them, have been alive for one hundred years. Though their days are dwindling, both are determined to leave their mark on the world. With the help of Lenni's doting palliative care nurse and Father Arthur, the hospital's patient chaplain, Lenni and Margot devise a plan to create one hundred paintings showcasing the stories of the century they have lived�??stories of love and loss, of courage and kindness, of unexpected tenderness and pure joy. Though the end is near, life isn't quite done with these unforgettable women just yet. Delightfully funny and bittersweet, heartbreaking yet ultimately uplifting, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot reminds us of the preciousness of life as it considers the legacy we choose to leave, how we influence the lives of others even after we're gone, and the wonder of a friendship that transcends t No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.09)
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Wikipedia in English
2
‘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 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.” (