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    The Archivist
    The Archivist
    The Archivist
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Archivist

    Written by Martha Cooley

    Narrated by Suzanne Toren and George Guidall

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Archivist is a debut novel of remarkable depth and power. Set in the hushed world of a prestigious American university, it weaves a story of love and loss, recognition and redemption. Matthias Lane, 65, is the university's orderly archivist. Graduate student Roberta Spire, 35, is determined to gain access to some of the collection's sealed letters-ones written by T.S. Eliot to his close friend, Emily Hale. Roberta believes they hold the keys to Eliot's religious conversion, his wife's suicide, and his emotional detachment. As Matthias considers Roberta's request, he is confronted with the eerie parallels between the poet's life and his own. Narrator George Guidall voices each emotional and psychological shift in the archivist's revelations. When Suzanne Toren joins him to relate a journal kept by Matthias' wife before her death, this chronicle adds an unforgettable dimension to an assured and thoughtful novel.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateAug 8, 2014
    ISBN9781490645360
    The Archivist

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    Reviews for The Archivist

    3.5/5

    294 ratings17 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The titular character of this emotional novel is an aging academic in charge of a prestigious archive. He took the job on the day his wife died and has buried himself in books ever since trying to forget his hurt. His wife's mental illness separated them for years, destroying their marriage and permanently scarring him.One day a mysterious young woman comes to his office demanding access to a forbidden series of letters from T. S. Eliot to his close female friend. Who is this stranger who reminds him so palpable of his wife? A heartfelt novel of loss, religion, and moral uncertainty.
    • 4/5
      An extraordinary novel including references to real people. It is about thearchivist at a university library to which T S Eliot's late mistress hasgiven all her letters from him, not to be opened for 20 years. Great ethicalquestion as to whether this prohibition should be observed, a researcher iskeen to read them. In fact the mistress, Emily Hale, really lived and didindeed donate the letters to Princeton Un Lib, with that prohibition. Butthe novel does give a fate for these letters - really strange.
    • 2/5
      Pretty solid "meh" from me.
    • 3/5
      While this has been well reviewed by others, I found its structure slightly dissapointing and distracting. It's a good book and definitely one for people of a bookish persuasion. However, the central third of the novel is one woman's diary of her experiences as a Jew in post WWII New York and her guilt driving her mad. It takes away from the central (and titular) narrator, who is/was her husband, who helms the front and back third of the book.

      Not perfect, but well worth the read.
    • 4/5
      I did not know what to expect from the novel, but certainly nothing as emotionally charged and reflective as it was! Quiet Matt is a terrific foil to his two fiery women, Judith and Roberta, as both struggle in their own ways with their identities and their religion's meaning. I found it was a very human and astute way to look at how religion (in this case Judaism and Christianity) shape world views and sensitivities.Judith's slow descent into insanity, as she starts to feel the world too much, absorbed by it and its cruelty, is mesmerizing and believable.It was a bit of a tough read for me (I was looking for something lighter) but I did not regret my efforts.
    • 2/5
      This is a sandwich novel: a long middle section of diary entries by Judith Lane written during her "incarceration"--how she experienced her (in)voluntary stay at Hayden, a mental hospital during the late 50s & early 60s-- that breaks and connects Parts I and II which concern Judith's husband Matthias, an archivist at a major university library; Roberta Spire, a graduate student who wants access to T.S Elliot's letters to Emily Hale, sealed until 2020; and T.S. Elliot's poems and marriage. Overwrought. Heavy-handed parallels between T.S. Elliot's marriage (his wife Vivienne died in a mental institution), Matthias's marriage to Judith (she committed suicide at Hayden) and between Judith and Roberta, both haunted by the Holocaust and their Jewish family histories. I often dislike psychological novels with tormented characters whose personal struggles are also religious struggles. And this novel provides such characters in spades. After Part I, I was gritting my teeth, but then was rescued somewhat by the middle section of the novel. Not that Judith is a less tormented character than Matthias and Roberta; her mental agony is acute, but she recognizes the face of her tormentor as that of History. I found particularly interesting how mid-twentieth century psychiatry, in the guise of Dr. Clay (definitely, he has feet of clay), recognizes only childhood traumas and relationships with parents as sources of mental breakdown, but doesn't recognize that one can be driven crazy by History. Judith is obsessed with the Holocaust and with the willingness of others to "carry on" in the face of such horrific knowledge. She is equally obsessed by the guilt that she feels she, all her family members (Matthias, Uncle Len & Aunt Carol) and humanity in general must expiate and is drawn to the Kabbalah with its notions of Repair. She can't separate her personal story from the News, from History. At Hayden, she is supposed to learn how to be happy, to calm down, to make distinctions between then and now, there and here. But Judith can't do this and she doesn't want too. But others want it for her, so that she can return to a "normal" life with Matthias and get back to writing poetry. The 50s and 60s were an era rife with self-destructive artists, such as Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Charlie Parker & Bud Powell. Bud Powell functions as Judith's doppelganger in a sense, as African-American jazz musicians and poets express a knowledge of the world that echos that of post-war Jews. Judith, knowingly, and her aunt and uncle more instinctively, find solace and a home in Jazz.
      Part II of the sandwich story is even more insufferably overwrought than Part I. I found the Roberta Spire character annoying and I think that it is regrettable that the author lingers incessantly on Matt's attraction to this woman 30 years his junior. The narrative is overloaded with descriptions of his reactions to her physical attributes, gestures, the look in her eyes, etc. If the author felt it necessary to create this kind of energy between these two characters (and I think the story would have been better off without it) a few subtle hints now and then would have done the job. As it is, it reads as unconvincing melodrama. The novel would have been better served with Roberta as a more neutral character. She could still have provided the impetus for Matt to reexamine his marriage and Judith's mental breakdown and suicide. The parallels between his marriage and that of T.S. Elliot and his wife Vivienne certainly would have sufficed. In fact more emphasis on the literary characters might have saved this novel from its two star fate.
    • 2/5
      This was a book about shifting personal realities, about the impossibility of understanding other people until it is too late, and about disillusionment. I found it depressing and difficult to read. It really wasn't about archives or T.S. Elliot, though both provided shading to the story's backdrop. It does provide an interesting glimpse into the lives and personal struggles of Jews (by both descent and faith) after the realities of World War 2 started to become known. I would not recommend this book to people who read for escape, but if you're interested in the many shades of grey within the human soul (my, doesn't that sound existential!), this might be a book for you.
    • 5/5
      Matthias Lane, a reclusive widower in his 60's, is an archivist at a university library. The jewel of his collection is a set of letters that T. S. Eliot wrote to his friend Emily Hale over a 20-year period -- letters that Hale bequeathed to the library, provided that they be kept sealed until the year 2020. This is his story and that of his wife and family. Although The Archivist takes place on an intimate stage -- no more than two or three characters are typically present in a scene -- the narrative poses large questions. Should art and religion seek to console us for the world's evils or to sharpen our awareness of them? Where do we draw the line between our obligation to remember a terrible past and our desire to rid ourselves of its burdens? Once one has become aware of the existence of radical evil, how should one conduct one's life? Most of the novel is narrated by Matthias, and with utter persuasiveness Cooley captures his cautious, scrupulous, restrained and intelligent voice. This is a brilliantly imagined tale of an archivist whose interest in T. S. Eliot and her family's history dovetail into a sad but fascinating story. Some of the best writing about mental issues that I have ever read.
    • 4/5
      Chronically dull and plodding. The writing's beautiful but I spent all my time waiting for something, *anything* to happen. Full of thoroughly miserable characters and a central mystery that's never really resolved.
    • 3/5
      I'm participating in a twenty-four hour read-a-thon. I chose this as my first read (or half-read, as I was already up to page 175 when I started the read-a-thon).Thoughts about the book: This book reminds me in many ways of one of my all-time favorite reads, Possession. The novel has several storylines: Matt and Judith, Roberta and her boyfriend, Roberta's parents, Judith's parents, and Eliot and his wife and Emily Hale. As a librarian, I was intrigued with the idea of saving or not saving written work. In some fashion, Matt blamed Judith's fall into insanity on his destruction of her survivor files and her poems. Judith had relied on Matt to keep these, but he felt their presence was exacerbating her illness. The saving of Eliot's letters to Emily went against Eliot's wishes, and the novel concludes with Matt's thoughtful destruction of the letters.The other theme of the book was Judaism vs. Christianity. All the characters of the novel wrestled with religion. Several converted from Judaism to Christianity. Christianity was a refuge for those who had suffered as Jews. However, it caused great suffering for those who later learned of the conversions.I've had this book for over three and a half years. I'm happy to have finished it.
    • 4/5
      An aging archivist meets a young woman who wants to read the letters that T.S. Eliot wrote to a woman named Emily Hale during Eliot's stormy marriage. The letters are sealed for years to come and stored in the archives. Her request brings back memories of the archivists own marriag with surprising parallels to Eliot's. The archivist must then decide what to do with Eliot's letters. Beautifully written and abounding with Eliot's poems.
    • 4/5
      The plot involves an archivist who is responsible for holdings that include works relating to T.S. Eliot, his wife, who died long before the main action of the book and whose story is told in flashbacks and journal entries, and a woman English student determined to get access to Eliot's letters. The story of Eliot and his wife Vivienne, who he had put away in a mental institution, parallels the story of the archivist and his wife. The wife's journal entries are rather heartbreaking, and in the end help drive an act by the archivist that will change history forever.
    • 5/5
      I finished this book a week or so ago but I wanted to mull it around a bit before I wrote about it. The Archivist was a profoundly moving novel. I was not aware until I began it of the role the Holocaust plays. It seems I cannot escape this lately.The Archivist is the story of an archivist (duh), a scholar and a ghost. Both the scholar and the ghost are poets and have a strong interest in the work of T. S. Eliot. Eliot's poems are used throughout the book to poignant effect. The ghost is the late wife of the archivist, Matthias. Judith had killed herself twenty years prior to the opening of the novel. Judith was a poet and Jewish. Much of the book is set in the period immediately after the close of WWII. Judith is profoundly affected by the information regarding the Final Solution which appeared after the war ended. This seems to be the catalyst for her breakdown and suicide.In the present day Matthias meets Roberta, a poet and scholar who wants access to the Emily Hale letters from T. S. Eliot which are in his keeping. The collection is closed until 2019 or 2020 (I did some research and both dates crop up). Roberta has only recently become aware that she is Jewish and the shock has unnerved her a bit. There are obvious parallels between Roberta and Judith and Matthias acts out of character in many ways given his relationship with Roberta.The entire middle section of the book is the diary Judith kept while in a mental institution prior to her death. This book ultimately comes into the hands of her husband. Thus he is an archivist in many senses of the word. Prior to her incarceration, Judith had amassed a file of articles on the Holocaust which she became increasingly obsessed with. Despite the fact that she was not directly affected by the Final Solution, Judith feels she must be a witness. Judith was an archivist as well.Here is where the book becomes very profound for me. Perhaps my lifelong obsession with the Holocaust is that I feel the need to be a witness as well. We all know there are those still who deny this even happened. The people who were eyewitnesses are dying and will soon be gone. This particular act of horror should never be forgotten. It remains to this day the worst evil perpetrated against humanity in terms of its vast, impersonal organization. We forget or ignore it at our peril. And we do not need to be Jewish (however you define that) to bear witness. 'No man is an island' whether Jewish or otherwise.
    • 5/5
      A great literary novel. T.S. Eliot's life and work figure prominently but all references are quoted or relate to the modern day story. No prior knowledge or interest is required, and it's a very good story, don't miss it. My personal tags for this book tell the tale:Literature,academia, book about books, librarians, libraries, archives, letters, diaries, poets, T.S. Eliot, love,mental illness, Holocaust, Judaism, Christianity, it's all there. A New York Times Notable Book and an IMPAC Dublin Award nominee too.
    • 4/5
      “The archivist” is the literary archivist for the papers of T.S. Eliot. Thirty years after his wife’s death, he encounters Roberta, a graduate student eager to read letters written between Eliot and a female friend. The story moves in sections between the perspectives of the archivist and Roberta, and the late wife’s journal written while she was in a mental institution prior to her death. A good story of love and relationships, blended with a tour of world and salvation history. The ending left something to be desired, though. First novel.
    • 3/5
      Worth reading, but slow and plodding. Good characters.
    • 1/5
      I found this slow.