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A review by justinkhchen
Metropolitan Stories by Christine Coulson
5.0
5 stars
Evoking the quirkiness of Wes Anderson, and perfectly spliced between fantasy and reality, Metropolitan Stories is a charming, magical realism love letter to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one that can only be written by someone who have had personal experience of its ins and outs (the author was on staff for over 2 decades).
The collection of short stories pivots between candid observations (people-watching at the staff cafeteria), and fantastical musings (an audition for a 'personal muse' among the museum's collection); and the overall tone feels suitably joyous with a hint of melancholy, complimenting the aging setting and its collection. I was even more enamored when characters and scenes started to reappear in later stories, weaving an even more holistic vision of this museum, where statue moves and more than just human visitors wander its halls.
As someone who has been to the Met multiple times, this is a great way to revisit the place from a completely different perspective; I learned some new factoids (did not know the main facade is still unfinished, with stack of stone sitting on top of columns), and enjoyed a series of engrossing stories on the symbiosis between space, art and humanity.
Evoking the quirkiness of Wes Anderson, and perfectly spliced between fantasy and reality, Metropolitan Stories is a charming, magical realism love letter to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one that can only be written by someone who have had personal experience of its ins and outs (the author was on staff for over 2 decades).
The collection of short stories pivots between candid observations (people-watching at the staff cafeteria), and fantastical musings (an audition for a 'personal muse' among the museum's collection); and the overall tone feels suitably joyous with a hint of melancholy, complimenting the aging setting and its collection. I was even more enamored when characters and scenes started to reappear in later stories, weaving an even more holistic vision of this museum, where statue moves and more than just human visitors wander its halls.
As someone who has been to the Met multiple times, this is a great way to revisit the place from a completely different perspective; I learned some new factoids (did not know the main facade is still unfinished, with stack of stone sitting on top of columns), and enjoyed a series of engrossing stories on the symbiosis between space, art and humanity.