Perfect lockdown read paints a warm glow
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, the debut novel from Marianne Cronin, is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise, disarming you with its unexpected moments of humour and joy. A charming, gentle book, it will lift your spirits, even as it tears at your heartstrings.
Set in the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital, it is the touching story of 17-year-old Lenni Petterson who is on May Ward, for those with life-limiting and terminal illnesses, and 83-year-old Margot who is awaiting heart surgery. These two unlikely friends meet in the hospital art therapy room run by the lovely Pippa. When Lenni notices that their combined ages makes up 100, they come up with the brilliant idea to commemorate key moments in their lives by creating 100 paintings together. Through the evolution of the paintings we learn the story of their lives. Margot’s paintings tell of her first kiss with Johnny and a subsequent loss that leaves her feeling unmoored, her relationship with Meena and her marriage to the quirky astronomer, Humphrey.
Lenni’s short life has been punctuated by family fractures, loneliness and isolation, but despite many reasons to feel bitter, least of all a terminal diagnosis, she approaches everything with her unique off-beat optimism.
The action takes place within the walls of the hospital, as the cast of colourful characters live and breathe, laugh and love, all under the shadow of death. There’s the wonderful Father Arthur, the hospital’s chaplain
(he deserves a whole book to himself), whom Lenni visits for a break from the boring mundanity of hospital life. Her hilarious observations and challenging questioning of him form many of the laugh-out-loud moments in the book. She pities him because she is usually the only one in the chapel when she drops in, and so she takes it upon herself to mount a PR campaign to increase his congregation.
“All day, every day, you are throwing a Jesus party and noone is coming,” she commiserates, offering to make posters to boost his ratings. He is gentle and patient with her forthright questions, allowing her the time and space to draw her own conclusions. Their growing friendship is a joy to behold, but tinged with the knowledge that it cannot last.
Lenni’s irrepressible curiosity and honesty, her kindness and irreverent sense of humour endear her to all those she meets (with the exception of the nasty Nurse
Jacky) and from this motley crew of porters and nurses, patients and doctors, she assembles a circle of friends and “family” who surround her with the love she deserves.
Cronin has created such wonderful characters that you cannot help loving them all, a skill she manages with the lightest of touches.
Through Lenni and Margot’s paintings and stories, we learn about the importance of seizing the day, finding joy in the little moments, and learning how to be free. Their persistence in the face of adversity, their strength and fortitude when the chips are down, all combine to offer the reader a sense of hope and cheer, particularly welcome emotions in these difficult days.
This is perfect lockdown reading, funny, wise, and deceptively simple, never shying away from difficult truths but instructing us in the most gentle and intelligent manner on how to live well in an imperfect world.
I loved it from the get-go, though I feared it would all end in tears. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but enough to say, it filled me with a warm, fuzzy glow that lasted well past any sadness.