Dear —
I’ve had the honor of interacting with some wonderful authors who are waiting for their novels to be released.
First, I met Jennifer Herrerra, whose romantic fantasy, Siren Says, goes live on August 18. Now, I am pleased to introduce you to Mariko Turk. Her debut novel, The Museum of Modern Love, will be published in October, and I’m excited for it because the story swept me away!
I hope you give both of these novels a chance; I found them enchanting, myself!
— Mariella
Author: Mariko Turk
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 13
Rating: ★★★★★
Recommended Reading:
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel — for a true story of a man who broke into museums and, for a time, had a formidable art collection in his own room
Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson — for another addictive YA romance that features similar nostalgia and travel
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman — for a more atmospheric story about love, art, museums, and the strange ways our lives can intersect
I had the great joy of reading an ARC of The Museum of Modern Love. It’s a charming YA rom-com, complete with some of the familiar tropes that come with the genre. However, there is much more to it than a mere love story. It is rich with wisdom that can apply to all of us, no matter what our lives might look like.
I was gripped, first by the colorful illustration on its cover, then by the opening sentence of the prologue:
“Let me paint you a picture.”
I was so drawn into this nostalgic story that I couldn’t put it down. I began reading it on a Friday, charging through it until early Sunday. By the time I reached the final page, I felt as though I had spent a weekend wandering through the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Miki, the novel’s protagonist.
I could tell that Turk loved art just as much as her protagonist does. Her love for museums, especially, was evident throughout the story. She admitted to this in the interview I had with her, saying that part of her love for museums was because…
“...they force us to study and reflect and linger. They force us to slow down and really look at things, as if our only job is to marinate in art and what it makes us feel. So why not treat the world around us like a museum sometimes? I feel like we’d all be a bit happier and more fulfilled.”
I love the sentiment of treating the world around us like a museum. There is always something new to see in our everyday routines if we only take the time to notice. We needn’t travel to the Met or the Louvre to become fascinated by something. Sometimes, all it takes is the willingness to slow down, look a little closer, and allow the ordinary world around us to surprise us.
Miki is an art nerd with a very specific idea of what love is supposed to look like.
The daughter of divorced parents, she has spent much of her life wondering whether her mother and father ever truly loved each other if they could eventually destroy the union they had built because they “fell out of love.” For guidance, she turns instead to her grandparents, whose love story began with a night at the Met.
Miki has also fallen in love with art through her grandmother, Hana. I have the same connection to art through my own grandmother, so this was one of those little details that made Miki immediately familiar to me.
Miki believes that her grandparents discovered the secret to indestructible love, and she intends to follow their path.
She is interning at the Met with her long-distance best friend, Auden Peck, whom she believes herself to be in love with. Their time at the museum is coming to an end, and Miki has decided that she will finally tell him how she feels.
Her plan is simple: get “lost” together in the Met and visit all the paintings her grandparents saw on the night they fell in love.
Of course, things do not go according to plan.
Auden is held back by their mentor with some last-minute work, and Miki finds herself alone in the museum with her ex, Lou.
As they follow the path Miki had intended to walk with Auden, something unexpected begins to happen. She starts enjoying Lou’s company. She begins sharing with him the moments she had imagined sharing with someone else.
And gradually, her heart changes its mind.
We cannot pretend to control life. The heart, in particular, is not especially interested in the plans we make for it. Sometimes we discover that love is very different from what we imagined when we fall for the “wrong” person.
Perhaps that is part of what makes love so frightening—and so wonderful. We can make plans for our hearts, but we cannot always tell them where to go.
The heart is simply too wild.
I was impressed by Turk’s ability to effortlessly paint a picture of the Met for her readers. Her descriptions conveyed such familiarity with the paintings on display and the corridors surrounding them. I asked her how she went about building that sense of place on the page—the magic that made me feel as though I were wandering through classic works of art alongside Miki.
Turk replied:
“I did A LOT of remote research about the details of the Met’s galleries. I read books and listened to podcasts about the Met. I was on the Met’s website constantly, studying floor plans and reading about exhibits and collections.”
I went on to ask if she had any personal history with the Met—and the answer was yes! She did:
“One of my best friends worked at the Met Museum for many years, and I remember visiting her there several times in my twenties. So some of my research was drawing on memories of what it felt like to be there in that grand, awe-inspiring place, and also what it felt like to get little peeks behind the scenes.”
In a recent post here at the Tearoom, I reflected on how it is no bad thing to be unable to take a “real vacation” during the summer holidays. Not everyone can afford airplane tickets, and even if we can, it isn’t always possible to leave home for long periods of time. But it is no tragedy for those of us who have books. We can escape to countless faraway places and still be back home in time for dinner.
I’m grateful to Mariko Turk for creating a book that allowed me to add the Met to my list of literary vacations. For a few hours, I didn’t have to imagine what it might be like to wander those galleries. I could simply open the book and go.
Miki’s outlook on love has the optimism that often belongs to the young, before life has had the opportunity to complicate it. I once had that optimism myself; I remember it well.
Fiction is refreshing because it reminds us of those hopes that most of us, through trial and heartbreak, eventually outgrow. It reminds us of that incredible lightness, leaving room for the fairy tale.
The Museum of Modern Love ultimately offers something more interesting than a simple romantic comedy. Miki’s grandmother did not lie about the night she fell in love at the Met. She simply understood something Miki had not yet learned.
Hana fell in love, though not necessarily with the man she would marry. On the night Miki has heard so much about, Hana fell in love—with art.
Art is a lover who is faithful to us. It gives us its time and inspiration. It does not forsake us. The love Hana encountered all those years ago was more durable than the love story Miki had imagined.
Perhaps this is one of the great gifts of art: it asks nothing of us except that we look, and yet it can remain with us for the rest of our lives.
Art stares back at us with the radiant smile of the Mona Lisa, whispering something eternal into our hearts.
I would not want a lesser love.
I had the pleasure of talking with Mariko Turk about The Museum of Modern Love, art, museums, first love, and the stories we inherit from the people who came before us. Her comments offer delightful behind-the-scenes insight of the novel that added so much color to my summer.
To read the full interview, click here!
I’m excited for October 13, which is when everyone will be able to explore the Met in the pages of Miki’s story. It gave me a lot to think about, and I’m sure that it will be received well. Thank you, Mariko Turk, for answering my questions and for writing this tale!
If you know someone who loves books, art, or a good story about falling in love, I’d be grateful if you shared this post with them. It’s always a joy to pass a good book along.
6 Books That Made My Summer
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Aug 12
Many people use the freedom of summer holidays to finally take that long-desired vacation. For some, this might mean a flight to another continent, where ancient ruins steeped in history beckon travelers into their presence. For others, it might be something simpler: a camping trip to a remote corner of the country, a weekend by the sea, or a long-await…
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