Will I love The Archivist?

Having worked in several archives, I know they are magical places, full of treasures that must be protected and cared for with a delicate touch and a responsibility to both past and future. Although people often think of archives as official institutions housing government records, artefacts can be personal documents, films, or objects, capturing tiny moments that make up grand histories. 

This book interweaves the poetry and factual background of T.S. Eliot with the life of the fictional archivist who protects his collections. Both men struggle with difficult marriages, and the fact that their wives are institutionalised due to mental… show more.

A dark meditation on guilt, love, and marriage, it intersperses the story of Matthias, the titular archivist with the life and work of T. S. Eliot, whose letters he’s charged with keeping. When a young scholar wants to read these letters ahead of their scheduled opening, Matthias must wrestle with his own repressed feelings about his past, with some incidents paralleling the poet’s. I enjoyed it for the meditation on how archives can bridge that gap between the past and the present.