The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin was highly recommended in Renee's Reading Club (that group on Facebook where I get a lot of recommendations). When I was ready for a new audio book and this was available, I scooped it up. It was very confusing at first to listen to because I couldn't tell who was speaking, I didn't realize that the chapter names were sentences which made things seem to not make sense. I was almost ready to return the book to the library. Unread. Instead, I put it aside, and requested the e-book version. I really wanted to give this novel a chance. Once I got the e-book, the format, the narration, the chapter titles all made sense. I was then able to seamlessly move from the e-book and the audio book. That's something I am rarely able to do with a book.

The upshot is that I loved this story. Seventeen year old Lenni and 83-year old Margot meet in an art class while patients in a Glasgow hospital. They realize that between the two of them they've lived 100 years. And between the two of them, they have 100 years of life stories. They create the idea for a project of creating art to represent each one of the 100 stories they are ready to share. The art project forms the structure to the story. The life stories are the meat of the novel.

We learn about their families and why they are both in the hospital. We learn how they each become the person that they are when they meet. Cronin reveals the information in an engaging way. We watch them each learn about love. We watch Lenni and Margot's relationship develop. We get to know other characters, both patients and workers, in the hospital with them.

I'm not sure that I'd recommend the audio book, but I'd highly recommend this novel.