March 2023 Book Club Pick Of The Month

“100 Years of Lenni and Margot” by Marianne Cronin

Due to my commitment to my community theater group, I couldn’t go to Book Club this month. It doesn’t mean I’m skipping out on this month. It means I don’t have the luxury of knowing what my fellow bookworms thought as they read this beautiful story.

What Is The Story About?

Lenni is a seventeen-year-old patient in the terminal illness ward at the hospital. When the hospital creates art classes, Lenni befriends the eighty-three-year-old Margot. The two realize their ages combined are 100 years and paint 100 pictures telling stories about their lives.

I saw it as a story highlighting female friendships while giving Lenni a chance to live life vicariously through Margot. It’s a bittersweet story that had me ugly crying at the end.

I Wanted To Hear Book Club’s Thoughts On Lenni Relating To Older Patients Than Her Peers

When art classes began in the hospital, Lenni got put in a group of other people her age. She went once and requested a group with older people. These other kids had so much life in them and seemed to avoid Lenni and her sickness. Lenni struggled to find anything in common with these kids.

Once she got her wish, she thrived with the older people. Lenni saw them as more relatable and had an easier time engaging with them.

When we think of terminal patients, the youngest we might think of is a person in their 40s. Unless you lived it, you wouldn’t think of kids or 30-somethings as being terminally ill.

It’s why I think Lenni had an easier time with the older patients. None of the kids wanted to acknowledge how lucky they were that they were healthy. Margot and the rest of the 80-something art class were more willing to embrace Lenni because they were as close to death as Lenni.

Except for a couple of stories from Lenni’s life, we never see any other kids in her story. The only other young person we see Lenni interact with is the intern that came up with the art class.

Most of the people Lenni meets are older. And most of them have their thoughts about death, God, and what happens next.

The Book Gave The Most Interesting Death Images I’d Ever Seen

The older we get, the more we think about death. If we get sick, we think about death. Hell, going on WebMD when you have a cold makes you think you’ll die within a week!

When most people think about death, we hear about the light at the end of the dark tunnel. That light is either our thought of Heaven, Hell or something else. Lenni had a more creative version of what death looks like than anyone I’d met.

She saw death as boarding an airplane. We’re all waiting at our gates for our plane, and when we die, it’s like we’re boarding.

Maybe it’s because I spend any free moment I have traveling. I felt that metaphor. Death isn’t something I like thinking about, but if it’s like sitting at an airport, it gives me a sense of peace.

My Question: Did We Need To Know More About Lenni’s Life?

As we read the story I noticed a pattern. When Lenni and Margot started their project, Margot had many stories to tell. She had grief, love, loss, and so much more. Some of my favorite parts of the book became the pictures Margot painted and the stories that came with them.

Lenni told us about two stories about her life before she got sick. We knew from these stories she’s a Swiss immigrant, and her mother isn’t around. She hasn’t had as many experiences as Margot, but I wonder if we needed to know more about her.

Lenni’s story begins at the end of her life. Margot’s story looks like it begins at the end, but we learn she could have more life to live. We’re never told for sure.

I’m asking myself another question as I think about this book. Is it fair we’re meeting Lenni at the end of her life? I go back and forth on my answer. Sometimes, I think it’s not fair, and other times I think we’re meeting her at the right time.

Final Thoughts

100 Years of Lenni and Margot is a beautiful story everyone needs to read at least once. It’s funny, sad, and sweet. I love stories of female friendships, and I hadn’t had one move me like this since I read Isabel’s Daughter.

I know I didn’t do this book justice by talking about it here. You need to go to your library and pick up a copy of this book.

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