Scan barcode
A review by kelly_inthe419
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
5.0
Could I learn to appreciate the sort of song the girl sang, I asked Karen. You don't need to, she said. You have enough pleasure from the music you do understand, you don't need more. Perhaps this is right. There are only so many raspberries a man can eat.
I've been wanting to read this book for quite some time and am so glad I finally did. This is such a beautiful story of friendship and love and fidelity and family. It is both heartbreaking and heartwarming in it's sincerity. It is told lovingly through letters between Tina Hopgood, an English farmer's wife, and Anders Larsen, the curator at a Danish museum. What starts as a letter to the former curator who discovered an ancient mummified corpse of the Tollund Man when Tina was just a girl, leads to something new and unexpected. As a mature woman, Tina has questions but soon finds that Professor Glob is deceased. Instead, she receives a warm note from Larsen, and so begins their correspondence.
The bonds between the two grow ever stronger as they discuss not just the Tollund Man but their lives and loves and loss. And how many raspberries have they missed along their respective journeys through life. As their lives unfold over the course of many months we learn of their families and dreams and disappointments, and in turn, they learn and grow with each other.
This debut novel from Anne Youngson was a delightful epistolary novel. I loved the letters and the gradual development of friendship and love between the two characters as they helped nurture and support one another. The ending is ambiguous but also perfect, leaving the reader to wonder just what happens from here.
As the two discuss, there are many paths a life can take, as summed up in this lovely quote.
Whenever I pick raspberries, I go as carefully as possible down the row, looking for every ripe fruit. But however careful I am, when I turn around to go back the other way, I find fruit i had not seen approaching the plants from the opposite direction.
I've been wanting to read this book for quite some time and am so glad I finally did. This is such a beautiful story of friendship and love and fidelity and family. It is both heartbreaking and heartwarming in it's sincerity. It is told lovingly through letters between Tina Hopgood, an English farmer's wife, and Anders Larsen, the curator at a Danish museum. What starts as a letter to the former curator who discovered an ancient mummified corpse of the Tollund Man when Tina was just a girl, leads to something new and unexpected. As a mature woman, Tina has questions but soon finds that Professor Glob is deceased. Instead, she receives a warm note from Larsen, and so begins their correspondence.
The bonds between the two grow ever stronger as they discuss not just the Tollund Man but their lives and loves and loss. And how many raspberries have they missed along their respective journeys through life. As their lives unfold over the course of many months we learn of their families and dreams and disappointments, and in turn, they learn and grow with each other.
This debut novel from Anne Youngson was a delightful epistolary novel. I loved the letters and the gradual development of friendship and love between the two characters as they helped nurture and support one another. The ending is ambiguous but also perfect, leaving the reader to wonder just what happens from here.
As the two discuss, there are many paths a life can take, as summed up in this lovely quote.
Whenever I pick raspberries, I go as carefully as possible down the row, looking for every ripe fruit. But however careful I am, when I turn around to go back the other way, I find fruit i had not seen approaching the plants from the opposite direction.