I recommend reading this in one or two sittings to appreciate the narrative flow. I did not do this and found it choppy until I finally read the remaining portion of the book in one session. The stories are a mix of magical, quirky, and factual. Sometimes its hard to sort. The best way to describe the experience is to think of it as a romp through The Met as the author creates characters around actual works and settings in the building. Once I tried to stop figuring out what was real or not, I thoroughly enjoyed the magical and imaginary happenings.
It's a short read, a series of vignettes, that will either work for the reader or not. I particularly loved the first and the last, but others may find favorites throughout the collection. ( )

3/31/22

I absolutely loved this - listened to it via audio but will definitely buy a hard copy. Such great prose, I'm afraid I missed some of it as I'm more visually oriented. ( )

Uneven collection of short stories about the Metropolitan Museum of Art: its personnel, some of its art works, patrons. Some I liked better than others. The author worked there for many years; I could feel her love for it shine through. Some stories included fantasy.
My favorites:
"Adam": a statue of Adam and how he tries to help a guard, with devastating results to the statue.
"Lost": Melvin, a laid-off man, who enters a room kept the way the wealthy owner had left it, sits down on a sofa, and...
"Found": Melvin's lonely briefcase, stuffed with blank sheets of paper, and how it sparks a panic among staff and visitors.
"Papercuts": After the death of the unobtrusive humble sorter of paper bags with the Met logo, known only as the Rubber Band Man, Edith, a staff member discovers his secret life.

Many of the characters appear in several stories. ( )

3.5 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a place I wld love to visit but doubt it will ever happen. It ks the setting though of some very original stories or related episodes. In these stories the museum comes alive, literally. The first episode concerns a chair made in the mid 1700's, a chair that was the favorite another for a you g princess. Oh, how it longs to be sat on once again.

Then the director of the museum needs a muse, because a renown fashion designer is meeting with him and stated he was bring his muse. So all those qualified as muses, from various pai tings , sketches, statuary and sculptures show up to be interviewed. Clever and witty.

All those who k ow the museum from the workers,to the office personal and even the guards feAture in a story. As do various of the other exhibits. L enjoyed the one where Adam who had been on his pedastal for ages, steps down to warn a guard. Of course, that doesn't turn out well

So an innovative look inside a famous museum, though not all episodes worked as well as others. Still, cudoes for creativity and originalty.

ARC from Other Press. ( )