The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot

I was eager to read this book for a few reasons: 

1. it's super popular on Bookstagram 
2. I love a multigenerational friendship story 
3. I was in the mood for a tearjerker, and I had heard this book was a 3-hanky read. 

The book's blurb promises a story about multigenerational friendship but that wasn't what I got. In fact, the friendship between Margot and Lenni was so secondary, and the first two-thirds of the story dragged so much for me, that I debated DNFing it. But due to its HIGH praise on GoodReads/Instagram, I kept going, hoping things would turn around. 

Touted as a tearjerker, this book didn't move me like I thought it would. There are a couple of sad bits but overall, I felt removed from the lives of 17-year-old Lenni (who plays a surprisingly secondary role) and 83-year-old Margot. Part of the issue is that we spend a lot of time in flashbacks to Margot's early life and very little time with Lenni and Margot  together. More time is given to Meena, a secondary character than to Lenni and I found that odd. This focus gave the story an unbalanced feel and resulted in the reader being told not shown the bond between the teen and the octogenarian. 

There are some good secondary characters (Father Arthur and Humphrey - who was my favourite!) and I enjoyed the humour in the exchanges between Father Arthur and Lenni but couldn't shake the feeling that 17-year-old Lenni was written more like a precocious 12-year-old than an older teen.

This was a touching story but not nearly as engaging or emotional as I had expected. I finished it wondering what I was missing since my experience was so different from so many other readers who adored this book.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Marianne Cronin

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Tearjerker, LGBTQIA+

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Publisher: Harper

First Published: June 1, 2021

Opening Line: When people say "terminal," I think of the airport.

Book Description from GoodReads: 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 that begins at the end . . . 

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 time.