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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this and learned a lot. I had previously read about how miraculous Charles Lindburgh’s flight was in the book One Summer by Bill Bryson. In that same book, I learned that who, at the time, a world hero, became a Nazi sympathizer. I feel bad that I never knew a thing about Anne Lindburgh, and it never occurred to me to think about her. I had no idea that she was also a pilot, in fact becoming the first American woman to earn a glider pilot’s license and that she flew many flights alone or alongside Charles. I also didn’t know she was an acclaimed writer.
But those are the facts of their lives. The emotional stuff of course has to be imagined, but I don’t envy women of that time in history being known only as a wife and mother (which is why she barely made the history books), but much worse, having to obey their husbands, and apparently Charles was a tyrant toward her and the six children he had with her. I also had no idea he had seven other children with three other women (!). I didn’t think about how, being so famous at that time, they were hounded in the way Princess Diana was hounded by the press and the public.
This is an interesting read. It took a few chapters for me to get into it, but then I was hooked.
But those are the facts of their lives. The emotional stuff of course has to be imagined, but I don’t envy women of that time in history being known only as a wife and mother (which is why she barely made the history books), but much worse, having to obey their husbands, and apparently Charles was a tyrant toward her and the six children he had with her. I also had no idea he had seven other children with three other women (!). I didn’t think about how, being so famous at that time, they were hounded in the way Princess Diana was hounded by the press and the public.
This is an interesting read. It took a few chapters for me to get into it, but then I was hooked.
I simultaneously loved and hated this book! Even though its historic fiction and at that very fictionalized, i could imagine so much of it to be true because secrets hurt so much. I greatly admired AL's books and writing so will now investigate the real life of the Lindberghs and whatever is written about their marriage. i get that it is historical fiction but felt that the author portrayed anne as quite feeble rather than a strong woman who was a very talented writer.
This book gives the depth Anne Morrow Lindbergh richly deserves, even if it is fictional. Anne lived in the shadow of Charles ‘Lucky’ Lindbergh for most of her adult life. They married shortly after her graduation from Smith College after meeting at the embassy in Mexico, where her father served as ambassador. Make no mistakes, Anne was amazing. She received her own pilot’s licence, was her husband’s navigator and co pilot all over the world, including a crash landing in remote river in China.
Their lives were fervently followed by the media, which reached it’s peak with the kidnapping and eventual death of their eldest child Charlie. I can’t imagine the suffering they each had, but they manifested their grief in very diverging ways. This Anne admits to her mistakes, in the end finds a way to forgive her husband for so many things and his double life. Charles is buried in Hawaii. Anne had her ashes scattered near the site of their honeymoon and where her baby’s ashes were spread. Against Charles’ wishes. Anne finds her voice in this book and I enjoyed it. I hope some of it is true.
Their lives were fervently followed by the media, which reached it’s peak with the kidnapping and eventual death of their eldest child Charlie. I can’t imagine the suffering they each had, but they manifested their grief in very diverging ways. This Anne admits to her mistakes, in the end finds a way to forgive her husband for so many things and his double life. Charles is buried in Hawaii. Anne had her ashes scattered near the site of their honeymoon and where her baby’s ashes were spread. Against Charles’ wishes. Anne finds her voice in this book and I enjoyed it. I hope some of it is true.
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I usually don't read historical novels. I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars because it was so sad. I did love the book, I just felt bummed about the Lindbergh's afterwards.
Told from the perspective of a wife living in the shadow of her famous husband, her struggles to find herself in the fishbowl of her life. Enjoyed it very much.
I picked this book up because I was attracted to the cover. Once I picked it up and saw it was about Anne and Charles Lindbergh, I was hooked.
I grew up in the city Charles named his historic plane after, and Lindbergh is pretty much still considered a hero around here. So I have to say, I was pretty disillusioned by the book’s treatment of him as tyrannical. Of course the story of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping was well known to me, but I was shocked to learn Charles had three other families! I was just as disillusioned to learn that Anne, too, had an affair! We never learned about THAT in school!
This book did what all good historical fiction does, and that is to inspire me to look up more about the subject and continue learning. From what I learned, the author for the most part worked with facts. However, she admits that the ‘emotional’ parts were from her imagination. At this risk of including some spoilers here, I have to observe that we really don’t know if Anne ever knew about the other families Charles had. The author believes she did. Anne’s daughter believes she did not. We also don’t know how tyrannical Charles really was towards Anne. One thing that bothered me, especially in the early parts of the book, was how Anne just ‘took’ the things Charles did, and did not stand up to him or voice her opinion because she was afraid to upset him. She left her children for extended times because she was afraid Charles might fly off and not return if she didn’t go along. Of course, this is a book of fiction, and we don’t really know if it happened this way. But to me, Anne came off as just as dishonest about who she was, hiding her true self from Charles, as she seems to accuse him of being towards her. I have to wonder if, had she had stood up to him from the beginning, insisting her choices and opinions hold as much weight as his in their decisions, whether things may have been different in their marriage.
From the historical aspect, one thing that really left an impression on me is how quickly the world changed after Charles made his flight across the ocean. While transcontinental flight is now an ordinary experience, it is hard to realize that Charles took his ‘impossible’ flight less than 100 years ago, and the whole airline industry sprung up in just a few years after that! As I read about Anne and Charles traveling to Europe in the 1930’s, it was amazing to realize that people could not just book the next flight and expect to be in another country the next day.
I really did enjoy this book and it made an impression on me. But in the end, I have to make a choice, much as Anne did in the book, about the Charles I choose to remember. For me, I choose to remember him as the hero who eased the world into flight as an everyday occurrance, rather than remembering him as a tragically flawed character.
I grew up in the city Charles named his historic plane after, and Lindbergh is pretty much still considered a hero around here. So I have to say, I was pretty disillusioned by the book’s treatment of him as tyrannical. Of course the story of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping was well known to me, but I was shocked to learn Charles had three other families! I was just as disillusioned to learn that Anne, too, had an affair! We never learned about THAT in school!
This book did what all good historical fiction does, and that is to inspire me to look up more about the subject and continue learning. From what I learned, the author for the most part worked with facts. However, she admits that the ‘emotional’ parts were from her imagination. At this risk of including some spoilers here, I have to observe that we really don’t know if Anne ever knew about the other families Charles had. The author believes she did. Anne’s daughter believes she did not. We also don’t know how tyrannical Charles really was towards Anne. One thing that bothered me, especially in the early parts of the book, was how Anne just ‘took’ the things Charles did, and did not stand up to him or voice her opinion because she was afraid to upset him. She left her children for extended times because she was afraid Charles might fly off and not return if she didn’t go along. Of course, this is a book of fiction, and we don’t really know if it happened this way. But to me, Anne came off as just as dishonest about who she was, hiding her true self from Charles, as she seems to accuse him of being towards her. I have to wonder if, had she had stood up to him from the beginning, insisting her choices and opinions hold as much weight as his in their decisions, whether things may have been different in their marriage.
From the historical aspect, one thing that really left an impression on me is how quickly the world changed after Charles made his flight across the ocean. While transcontinental flight is now an ordinary experience, it is hard to realize that Charles took his ‘impossible’ flight less than 100 years ago, and the whole airline industry sprung up in just a few years after that! As I read about Anne and Charles traveling to Europe in the 1930’s, it was amazing to realize that people could not just book the next flight and expect to be in another country the next day.
I really did enjoy this book and it made an impression on me. But in the end, I have to make a choice, much as Anne did in the book, about the Charles I choose to remember. For me, I choose to remember him as the hero who eased the world into flight as an everyday occurrance, rather than remembering him as a tragically flawed character.
I really enjoyed this book. I might have only given it 4 stars however there were many little revelations for me as I read it, things that made my connection with this book very personal. It took me back to a childhood memory of my Mom telling me about the Lindbergh baby and how tragic that was (my Mom was a dramatic storyteller so it was permanently tucked away in my memory's story bank). The biggest revelation was that the main character of this book -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh -- is the author of one of my most treasured books -- Gifts from the Sea. Many years ago this book was a gift to me from my sister, as it was one of her favourite books. My sister has since died from brain cancer, so this book holds a special place in my heart. Reading "The Aviator's Wife" not only gave me interesting insight into the lives of the Lindbergh's but also took me on a very personal walk down memory lane. For that reason, 5 stars.