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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Enjoyed the setting, the story, but the first half of the book belabored the "follow your man" personality of Anne.
I did not like the Lindberghs, plain and simple. The author's voice did nothing to remedy this situation. I found both husband and wife unlikable. Quite a long story that proved to be a real trial to get through.
Historical fiction is like going on a field trip instead of sitting in a lecture. You've heard of Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic. But read "The Aviator's Wife" to get to know him and especially his wife, Anne. It's a captivating story that combines facts with made-up emotions of the most famous family of their time.
The author carefully exposed and explored believable character flaws in every character. I was particularly impressed with was how the author wrote about the constant guilt Anne felt. She never felt productive enough. And she was forced to choose between flying off with Charles for months at a time or staying home with her children. Every good mother feels guilty about something. And at some point, every good mother feels like she has sacrificed who she is for the good of her family.
The Lindberghs lived only two generations before me, which evidentially is enough time to bury the bulk of their story. I'm glad it has been pulled off that dusty shelf!
The author carefully exposed and explored believable character flaws in every character. I was particularly impressed with was how the author wrote about the constant guilt Anne felt. She never felt productive enough. And she was forced to choose between flying off with Charles for months at a time or staying home with her children. Every good mother feels guilty about something. And at some point, every good mother feels like she has sacrificed who she is for the good of her family.
The Lindberghs lived only two generations before me, which evidentially is enough time to bury the bulk of their story. I'm glad it has been pulled off that dusty shelf!
Regardless of the status, tragedy, and fame that surrounded Anne Morrow Lindbergh, this is a story of common womanhood. The desire and struggle to be free from the label of "husband's wife" and "children's mother" is not unique. It is Anne's strength and character which make the tale its own. Melanie Benjamin does a beautiful job of imagining and writing of the inner thoughts of Anne and her relationships with those in her life to fulfill the fictional requirement of this novel. The rest..is history!
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
I personally had no knowledge on Charles Lindbergh aside from the fact that he was a pilot and flew somewhere important. This book gave me a totally different perspective that I could have never even guessed.
I have never really read historical fiction, but this book may have changed my opinion about it. I really enjoyed being able to read something that was giving me tons of facts while making it into a story. It definitely did not feel as though I was reading from a history textbook.
This book is told from the point of view of Anne Marrow Lindbergh, the wife of Charles Lindbergh. It detailed the many events that happened throughout their marriage ranging from flights they took together, to the kids they had and events within that. Not only did it talk about the important things that anyone from the outside would know, it also showed the inside of their relationship. The controlling side of Charles Lindbergh that no one knew about. He was America's hero, but on the inside, he definitely was not.
I recommend this read to anyone interested in learning some history as well as enjoying a good story line. I am definitely glad I was told about it and picked it up.
I have never really read historical fiction, but this book may have changed my opinion about it. I really enjoyed being able to read something that was giving me tons of facts while making it into a story. It definitely did not feel as though I was reading from a history textbook.
This book is told from the point of view of Anne Marrow Lindbergh, the wife of Charles Lindbergh. It detailed the many events that happened throughout their marriage ranging from flights they took together, to the kids they had and events within that. Not only did it talk about the important things that anyone from the outside would know, it also showed the inside of their relationship. The controlling side of Charles Lindbergh that no one knew about. He was America's hero, but on the inside, he definitely was not.
I recommend this read to anyone interested in learning some history as well as enjoying a good story line. I am definitely glad I was told about it and picked it up.
I got halfway through the book and realized I was only reading out of obligation and not out of enjoyment. Historical fiction is my favorite genre, yet I struggled to connect with any of the characters in this novel, especially Anne. I have quit mid-book less than five times in my life, this book being one of them.
The first half or two thirds was really good and then it seemed to kind of peter out
The NLS annotation --
Title: AVIATOR'S WIFE
Author: BENJAMIN, MELANIE Original Date: 2013
1927. In this fictionalized biography Anne Morrow, daughter of the ambassador to Mexico, meets the dashing Colonel Charles Lindbergh while visiting her family in Mexico City during the Christmas holidays. Soon Anne and Charles are married and living a glamorous life. Then, their son Charlie is kidnapped and murdered. 2013.
DB 76448 IPN
From the Author’s Note, “Again this is a novel, not a blow-by-blow account; I was more interested in the emotion, the personal drama, than I was in giving a history lesson.
The basic timeline for the rest of the book is, again, historically accurate. The historical figures we meet are people Anne and Charles did know; major events that occur such as the rally in Madison Square Garden, Charles’s record during the war, the visitation with the Apollo astronauts actually happened.”
I grew up in St. Louis, MO driving almost daily on a street named for Charles Lindbergh. I have also read a few other fictional accounts of real people and their complicated marriages and enjoyed them (see also The Paris Wife, DB 72814, LB 06921 about Hadley Richardson and her marriage to Ernest Hemingway, or Loving Frank, DB / RC 65372 about Frank Lloyd Wright and his affair with Mamah Borthwic ). I was taking an airplane trip and this seemed like a good traveling book.
Anne Morrow, daughter of the ambassador to Mexico, and considered the plainer daughter met Charles Lindbergh when he was traveling in Mexico. They didn’t have a very whirlwind courtship. He picked her and that was that. There was not a lot of swoon in their relationship although Anne does allude to early travels with her husband where they were wandering into jungles to help with taking aerial photos or charting new commercial airline travel paths and refers to these times as the good times in their marriage.
Early in their relationship you don’t get the feeling that she knew what to do with all the publicity or press regarding their lives together. They were sneaking around in disguises so they could go out of the house. They do talk about how they blame the press for having a role in the kidnapping. Apparently the press printed detailed maps on how to get to their home (which was supposed to be in a secluded area). The Aviator’s Wife does not discuss the conspiracy theories regarding the kidnapping (whether or not there were doubts about a single person being involved or multiple people) and does gloss over the trial, but does mention that Anne did testify at the trial and she cried at the news of the convicted’s execution. Anne and Charles had five more children. Anne and Charles do not talk about what they call the events of ’32. All the other children find out about the kidnapping and murder of their oldest brother from their school teachers (and history books).
Charles Lindbergh had some interesting and unpopular ideas regarding World War 2. Early on he was supportive of some of Germany’s policies. He also thought the United States should stay out of Europe’s war. After his own reputation was tarnished by some of his public statements about Germany and the war, he pushed his wife to further explain “their” position which she did in a published pamphlet because as Charles liked to remind her, she was the “writer” in the family. Charles did back pedal on some of his statements after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the damage to his reputation was done.
Before they were married and after, Anne was known for being a writer and essayist. The book does discuss her role in his writings (editing and writing about their adventures together). I haven't read Anne Lindbergh's book, A Gift from the Sea, but I did read a few reviews of it, and I get the idea that the Anne in The Aviator's Wife is very different from the Anne she thinks she is (or wants to be) when she is writing A Gift from the Sea.
Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight from New York to Paris took 33 hours back in 1927. Today you can board a passenger flight from New York to Paris (direct) and it’s only a 7 hour flight. I was far more interested in early air travel than I thought I’d be. Benjamin describes Charles’s chewing spearmint gum while he flew in his plane, his extra wrinkles from flying so close to the sun in those early days with the open cockpits, and then describing the luxury of early commercial travel. Throughout the book you constantly got a sense of renegotiating what it meant to be a hero, or what it meant to be your own person, and how to be not quite happily married for 45 years.
Title: AVIATOR'S WIFE
Author: BENJAMIN, MELANIE Original Date: 2013
1927. In this fictionalized biography Anne Morrow, daughter of the ambassador to Mexico, meets the dashing Colonel Charles Lindbergh while visiting her family in Mexico City during the Christmas holidays. Soon Anne and Charles are married and living a glamorous life. Then, their son Charlie is kidnapped and murdered. 2013.
DB 76448 IPN
From the Author’s Note, “Again this is a novel, not a blow-by-blow account; I was more interested in the emotion, the personal drama, than I was in giving a history lesson.
The basic timeline for the rest of the book is, again, historically accurate. The historical figures we meet are people Anne and Charles did know; major events that occur such as the rally in Madison Square Garden, Charles’s record during the war, the visitation with the Apollo astronauts actually happened.”
I grew up in St. Louis, MO driving almost daily on a street named for Charles Lindbergh. I have also read a few other fictional accounts of real people and their complicated marriages and enjoyed them (see also The Paris Wife, DB 72814, LB 06921 about Hadley Richardson and her marriage to Ernest Hemingway, or Loving Frank, DB / RC 65372 about Frank Lloyd Wright and his affair with Mamah Borthwic ). I was taking an airplane trip and this seemed like a good traveling book.
Anne Morrow, daughter of the ambassador to Mexico, and considered the plainer daughter met Charles Lindbergh when he was traveling in Mexico. They didn’t have a very whirlwind courtship. He picked her and that was that. There was not a lot of swoon in their relationship although Anne does allude to early travels with her husband where they were wandering into jungles to help with taking aerial photos or charting new commercial airline travel paths and refers to these times as the good times in their marriage.
Early in their relationship you don’t get the feeling that she knew what to do with all the publicity or press regarding their lives together. They were sneaking around in disguises so they could go out of the house. They do talk about how they blame the press for having a role in the kidnapping. Apparently the press printed detailed maps on how to get to their home (which was supposed to be in a secluded area). The Aviator’s Wife does not discuss the conspiracy theories regarding the kidnapping (whether or not there were doubts about a single person being involved or multiple people) and does gloss over the trial, but does mention that Anne did testify at the trial and she cried at the news of the convicted’s execution. Anne and Charles had five more children. Anne and Charles do not talk about what they call the events of ’32. All the other children find out about the kidnapping and murder of their oldest brother from their school teachers (and history books).
Charles Lindbergh had some interesting and unpopular ideas regarding World War 2. Early on he was supportive of some of Germany’s policies. He also thought the United States should stay out of Europe’s war. After his own reputation was tarnished by some of his public statements about Germany and the war, he pushed his wife to further explain “their” position which she did in a published pamphlet because as Charles liked to remind her, she was the “writer” in the family. Charles did back pedal on some of his statements after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the damage to his reputation was done.
Before they were married and after, Anne was known for being a writer and essayist. The book does discuss her role in his writings (editing and writing about their adventures together). I haven't read Anne Lindbergh's book, A Gift from the Sea, but I did read a few reviews of it, and I get the idea that the Anne in The Aviator's Wife is very different from the Anne she thinks she is (or wants to be) when she is writing A Gift from the Sea.
Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight from New York to Paris took 33 hours back in 1927. Today you can board a passenger flight from New York to Paris (direct) and it’s only a 7 hour flight. I was far more interested in early air travel than I thought I’d be. Benjamin describes Charles’s chewing spearmint gum while he flew in his plane, his extra wrinkles from flying so close to the sun in those early days with the open cockpits, and then describing the luxury of early commercial travel. Throughout the book you constantly got a sense of renegotiating what it meant to be a hero, or what it meant to be your own person, and how to be not quite happily married for 45 years.
What a fascinating read but it was a slow burner to me. "The Aviator's Wife" was a personal and emotional journey of Anne Morrow Lindbergh who was the wife, and essentially a shadow, of the famous Charles Lindbergh. Albeit the book was a great read, nonetheless I was reading the inner struggles of a woman who was forever gaslighted by her almost narcissistic husband. That being said, I could hardly enjoy the book. Anne Morrow Lindbergh's life was not an easy one.
Each chapter was about a major milestone/event in Anne Morrow Lindbergh's life. The book was written mostly in chronological order. Starting as a flashback when Anne was at her husband's deathbed, then a detail account of their journey as husband-and-wife together to Charles Lindbergh's passing. With minimum jumping from the past back to the present. the timeline was easy to follow.
The content and the quality of writing worth a solid 4 stars (actually even higher than that) though it was a mere 3 stars for my own personal enjoyment. Took me 3 weeks to read it. NO kidding. The book was a real slow burner for real. :)
Each chapter was about a major milestone/event in Anne Morrow Lindbergh's life. The book was written mostly in chronological order. Starting as a flashback when Anne was at her husband's deathbed, then a detail account of their journey as husband-and-wife together to Charles Lindbergh's passing. With minimum jumping from the past back to the present. the timeline was easy to follow.
The content and the quality of writing worth a solid 4 stars (actually even higher than that) though it was a mere 3 stars for my own personal enjoyment. Took me 3 weeks to read it. NO kidding. The book was a real slow burner for real. :)