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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
3.5 Stars
Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump was "a perfectly proportioned woman in miniature," reaching a height of 32 inches by adulthood (the quote is probably not exact since I listened to the audiobook). As a teenager, she realized that she could live a small life in her small town, becoming an old spinster and being forgotten shortly after her lonely death, or she could take advantage of her size to live a big life and leave her mark on the wider world. She chose the latter, journeying first on the Mississippi River as part of a floating "freak show" and then reaching out to the legendary P.T. Barnum and joining his American Museum.
Vinnie had a fascinating life. She did actually marry Charles Stratton, "General Tom Thumb," who toured with P.T. Barnum from the age of 5 until his death. Vinnie started her career with the American Museum but after her marriage, she and Charles toured Europe, the US, and eventually the world. That trip would have been almost impossible for someone of "normal" size at the time (Vinnie's career launched shortly before the Civil War began), and it seems unimaginable that two little people managed it with their support staff. This is the part that I would have enjoyed reading more about, but true records of Vinnie's life are apparently scarce.
This was an introspective book, as a fictionalized "autobiography" should be, but the introspection is exactly the part that left me a bit disinterested. I feel this is entirely due to my mood; listening to this during stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic might not have been the best choice. I've been struggling to find books that catch my interest while this has been going on, and the books that are working for me are more action-filled and for a younger audience. I keep trying other books though, and they keep not working out so great for me at this particular moment in history. Oh well. Life will find its new normal at some point, right?
The introspection and reflection just felt a bit repetitive. One of the first sentences of the book refers to Vinnie's guilt over the death of her sister Minnie, who was even smaller than Vinnie. Natually, Vinnie's thoughts return to her guilt and what she could have done differently to avoid Minnie's death over and over again. As a reader, I honestly just wanted to move on. And a small thing that annoyed me as I listened to the audiobook was the overuse of the word dreadful. I can't imagine this was overlooked by an editor and can only conclude that it must have been a favorite with the real-life Vinnie.
Vinnie comes across as being a bit of a cold-hearted realist. She marries Charles Stratton simply because he is also a little person and because she knows that their wedding will be the show of the decade. She also knows that childbirth is not something she would survive (she and Minnie were both normally-sized newborns), so she always keeps Charles at arm's length. A lot of her decisions are made with a business sense that appears to be as keen as that of P.T. Barnum himself. The only person who really seems to have her heart is her sister Minnie.
I had a bit of a difficult relationship with Kim Mai Guest's narration as well. Her voice was very soft and very high, which seems fitting considering who is telling the story, but that made it really hard to hear as I moved about rooms and did chores as I normally do while listening to audio books. I don't normally have that kind of trouble. That aside, I was happy enough with her performance.
Author Melanie Benjamin certainly chose a captivating subject with a lot of true material to work with, but unfortunately her approach didn't click with me at this point in my life. I certainly recommend it for others who enjoy historical fiction and who have better concentration than I do right now.
Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Bump was "a perfectly proportioned woman in miniature," reaching a height of 32 inches by adulthood (the quote is probably not exact since I listened to the audiobook). As a teenager, she realized that she could live a small life in her small town, becoming an old spinster and being forgotten shortly after her lonely death, or she could take advantage of her size to live a big life and leave her mark on the wider world. She chose the latter, journeying first on the Mississippi River as part of a floating "freak show" and then reaching out to the legendary P.T. Barnum and joining his American Museum.
Vinnie had a fascinating life. She did actually marry Charles Stratton, "General Tom Thumb," who toured with P.T. Barnum from the age of 5 until his death. Vinnie started her career with the American Museum but after her marriage, she and Charles toured Europe, the US, and eventually the world. That trip would have been almost impossible for someone of "normal" size at the time (Vinnie's career launched shortly before the Civil War began), and it seems unimaginable that two little people managed it with their support staff. This is the part that I would have enjoyed reading more about, but true records of Vinnie's life are apparently scarce.
This was an introspective book, as a fictionalized "autobiography" should be, but the introspection is exactly the part that left me a bit disinterested. I feel this is entirely due to my mood; listening to this during stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic might not have been the best choice. I've been struggling to find books that catch my interest while this has been going on, and the books that are working for me are more action-filled and for a younger audience. I keep trying other books though, and they keep not working out so great for me at this particular moment in history. Oh well. Life will find its new normal at some point, right?
The introspection and reflection just felt a bit repetitive. One of the first sentences of the book refers to Vinnie's guilt over the death of her sister Minnie, who was even smaller than Vinnie. Natually, Vinnie's thoughts return to her guilt and what she could have done differently to avoid Minnie's death over and over again. As a reader, I honestly just wanted to move on. And a small thing that annoyed me as I listened to the audiobook was the overuse of the word dreadful. I can't imagine this was overlooked by an editor and can only conclude that it must have been a favorite with the real-life Vinnie.
Vinnie comes across as being a bit of a cold-hearted realist. She marries Charles Stratton simply because he is also a little person and because she knows that their wedding will be the show of the decade. She also knows that childbirth is not something she would survive (she and Minnie were both normally-sized newborns), so she always keeps Charles at arm's length. A lot of her decisions are made with a business sense that appears to be as keen as that of P.T. Barnum himself. The only person who really seems to have her heart is her sister Minnie.
I had a bit of a difficult relationship with Kim Mai Guest's narration as well. Her voice was very soft and very high, which seems fitting considering who is telling the story, but that made it really hard to hear as I moved about rooms and did chores as I normally do while listening to audio books. I don't normally have that kind of trouble. That aside, I was happy enough with her performance.
Author Melanie Benjamin certainly chose a captivating subject with a lot of true material to work with, but unfortunately her approach didn't click with me at this point in my life. I certainly recommend it for others who enjoy historical fiction and who have better concentration than I do right now.
Simply amazing! This book is wonderful, delightful and simply marvelous!
Boring
This book took too long to tell. And Vinnie is too conceited and selfish throughout the whole book. Towards the end I was just reading it to be finished. I had no real interest in seeing if Vinnie ever figured out that Mr Barnum loved her and that the world and all the people in it were not there for her to use etc etc. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
This book took too long to tell. And Vinnie is too conceited and selfish throughout the whole book. Towards the end I was just reading it to be finished. I had no real interest in seeing if Vinnie ever figured out that Mr Barnum loved her and that the world and all the people in it were not there for her to use etc etc. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
As many other Goodreads reviewers have commented, for the beginning of the book, Vinny is a character you root for. You want her to succeed. However, with her marriage to Tom Thumb, she becomes someone you don't care much about. She treats her husband and sister Minnie poorly, controlling their lives, thinking mostly of herself.
A "DNF" for work bookclub. 2.5 stars. Made it through about 2/3rds. Disappointing because there could have been much more substance! The characters felt underdeveloped and the storylines about them were not the ones that interested me! This troupe spent 3 years travelling the globe in a time that international travel was incredibly rare. But those years are less than a chapter in the book.
This is the fictonalized autobiography of Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump. In 1841, Vinnie was born in a small Massachusetts town, and her circumstances were pretty unexceptional until her parents noticed, that as a toddler, she seemed to stop growing. At maturity, Vinnie was less than 3 feet tall. The expectations for her future were low, but Vinnie was determined to never be forgotten, and set out to live a most unconventional life.
She started out as a performer on a steamboat, working under her "cousin" Colonel Wood. The conditions were appalling at times, and Vinnie soon came to realize that interest in her was not for her singing, but solely driven by the audience's curiousity to see someone of such small stature. She was basically seen as an oddity, and that was the allure. In the beginning of the book, Vinnie says that she didn't want to be defined by her size, yet after leaving Wood, she contacts the famous P.T. Barnum. I truly believe she felt the situation would improve, and that Barnum was a moral businessman. However, I found it hard to understand why she would continue to live a life where she was treated as a commodity. I know, as a woman in the 1800s, that she didn't have a plethora of opportunities, but this just didn't seem to fit with her ideals.
Her lifestyle certainly did improve; after marrying another one of Barnum's performers, General Tom Thumb, she went on meet Presidents, Kings and Queen, and travel the world. She had fine, custom-made clothes, jewels, and all the material luxuries. Still, I questioned whether she was ever happy. The author portrayed the relationship between Vinnie and Barnum as a friendship, but I was never quite sure if he saw her as his equal, or as another one of his attractions or discoveries. I think there was a fondness there, but it all seemed to come down to business in the end. Then again, I had to look at Vinnie's part. Was she naive? Was she being taken advantage of by the powerful and influential Mr. Barnum? Or was she fully aware of what she was giving up, and possibly compromising? This is something of which I can't be sure. And maybe it's not as simple as that. I just felt that Vinnie, on more than one occassion, made decisions that seemed to go against her principles. Don't get me wrong...I'm not trying to be disparaging. I simply wanted to understand her motivation. Many times, I felt that she was trying so hard to run away from an ordinary life, and yet she wanted to be seen as no different that anyone else. Eventually, due to this conflict, I think she ended up living a life that wasn't what she might have hoped for. In terms of the relationship between Vinnie and Barnum, I would say that this arrangement could best be described as morally ambiguous.
This book certainly brought to light many questions about feminism, morality and humanity. I found it engaging, atmospheric, and very well written. The backdrop of the book was also quite interesting, as it was set in the time of the Civil War. There was an fascinating juxtaposition between the world of P.T. Barnum (a world which he expertly orchestrated), and the turmoil in the country. I would highly recommend this book.
She started out as a performer on a steamboat, working under her "cousin" Colonel Wood. The conditions were appalling at times, and Vinnie soon came to realize that interest in her was not for her singing, but solely driven by the audience's curiousity to see someone of such small stature. She was basically seen as an oddity, and that was the allure. In the beginning of the book, Vinnie says that she didn't want to be defined by her size, yet after leaving Wood, she contacts the famous P.T. Barnum. I truly believe she felt the situation would improve, and that Barnum was a moral businessman. However, I found it hard to understand why she would continue to live a life where she was treated as a commodity. I know, as a woman in the 1800s, that she didn't have a plethora of opportunities, but this just didn't seem to fit with her ideals.
Her lifestyle certainly did improve; after marrying another one of Barnum's performers, General Tom Thumb, she went on meet Presidents, Kings and Queen, and travel the world. She had fine, custom-made clothes, jewels, and all the material luxuries. Still, I questioned whether she was ever happy. The author portrayed the relationship between Vinnie and Barnum as a friendship, but I was never quite sure if he saw her as his equal, or as another one of his attractions or discoveries. I think there was a fondness there, but it all seemed to come down to business in the end. Then again, I had to look at Vinnie's part. Was she naive? Was she being taken advantage of by the powerful and influential Mr. Barnum? Or was she fully aware of what she was giving up, and possibly compromising? This is something of which I can't be sure. And maybe it's not as simple as that. I just felt that Vinnie, on more than one occassion, made decisions that seemed to go against her principles. Don't get me wrong...I'm not trying to be disparaging. I simply wanted to understand her motivation. Many times, I felt that she was trying so hard to run away from an ordinary life, and yet she wanted to be seen as no different that anyone else. Eventually, due to this conflict, I think she ended up living a life that wasn't what she might have hoped for. In terms of the relationship between Vinnie and Barnum, I would say that this arrangement could best be described as morally ambiguous.
This book certainly brought to light many questions about feminism, morality and humanity. I found it engaging, atmospheric, and very well written. The backdrop of the book was also quite interesting, as it was set in the time of the Civil War. There was an fascinating juxtaposition between the world of P.T. Barnum (a world which he expertly orchestrated), and the turmoil in the country. I would highly recommend this book.
A few years ago I read Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin which was a behind the scenes fictional look at the life Alice Liddell and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). I enjoyed the novel and came across Melanie’s second book, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb around the holidays that same year and acquired it via some gift cards I had received. And then it sat collecting dust on my shelf and maybe it should have stayed there.
The Best Thing About
The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb
The best thing about The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb can be summed up in one word…Lavinia. This is the given name of the real Mrs. Tom Thumb. Lavinia was the heart and soul of this novel. Her quick wit and humor poured off the page. When she was in the middle of the action, the scenes sung and sped by. I wanted to sit down have coffee with Ms. Bump for a couple of hours. I’m sure her biography, which is sadly incomplete, is fascinating.
The Worst Thing About
The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb
The book is slow and plodding. It’s probably the most solid example of a book that tells you what happens and doesn’t show you. There are these brief snapshots of action (escaping from the southern states at the outbreak of the Civil War, a fire in Milwaukee), but the rest of the story is just Lavinia telling you, “I decided to do this.” or “I decided to do that.” It doesn’t take much for Lavinia to make up mind and take action on ANY THING (well, there is one thing, but I don’t want to spoil that!) and she just sets out and does what she sets her mind to.
As a result, all the conflict in the story is not driven from internal character stories, but from external sources that are not people related. (Lavinia, despite her size, steamrolls over people when she wants to get something done.) Due to the time period, it takes a long time for events to happen because travel is slow, news travels slows, everything happens sooooo sloooowly.
Another #ShelfLove Book Off My Shelf
The second best thing about The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is that it means another #ShelfLove book is off my shelf. And while the novel wasn’t the action packed book I was hoping for after reading Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet and re-reading Water for Elephants, the moments of Lavinia taking charge of her life and speaking her mind will stay with me for a time.
This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews
The Best Thing About
The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb
The best thing about The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb can be summed up in one word…Lavinia. This is the given name of the real Mrs. Tom Thumb. Lavinia was the heart and soul of this novel. Her quick wit and humor poured off the page. When she was in the middle of the action, the scenes sung and sped by. I wanted to sit down have coffee with Ms. Bump for a couple of hours. I’m sure her biography, which is sadly incomplete, is fascinating.
The Worst Thing About
The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb
The book is slow and plodding. It’s probably the most solid example of a book that tells you what happens and doesn’t show you. There are these brief snapshots of action (escaping from the southern states at the outbreak of the Civil War, a fire in Milwaukee), but the rest of the story is just Lavinia telling you, “I decided to do this.” or “I decided to do that.” It doesn’t take much for Lavinia to make up mind and take action on ANY THING (well, there is one thing, but I don’t want to spoil that!) and she just sets out and does what she sets her mind to.
As a result, all the conflict in the story is not driven from internal character stories, but from external sources that are not people related. (Lavinia, despite her size, steamrolls over people when she wants to get something done.) Due to the time period, it takes a long time for events to happen because travel is slow, news travels slows, everything happens sooooo sloooowly.
Another #ShelfLove Book Off My Shelf
The second best thing about The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is that it means another #ShelfLove book is off my shelf. And while the novel wasn’t the action packed book I was hoping for after reading Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet and re-reading Water for Elephants, the moments of Lavinia taking charge of her life and speaking her mind will stay with me for a time.
This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews
Truly a fascincating story. To be clear, this is a novel based on the real life of Lavinia Warren/Mrs. Tom Thumb.
The story is engaging and wonderfully written. I was a bit annoyed with Vinnie's constant pining (is that the right word?) for Barnum. It just seemed awkward at times.
This is what is so interesting to me. The General and the Mrs. were the original "reality show". They exploited (or were exploited? hmm... a little of both) their situation and pretended to be something they weren't on stage. And, dear God, the babies. They blew all their money and were forced to perform again. But, no one was as interested as they once were. They became washed up has-beens. It would make an interesting discussion.
I'm so mad at myself for wiki-ing the story as I was reading the book. Please don't do it! Wait until after you've read the book.
The story is engaging and wonderfully written. I was a bit annoyed with Vinnie's constant pining (is that the right word?) for Barnum. It just seemed awkward at times.
This is what is so interesting to me. The General and the Mrs. were the original "reality show". They exploited (or were exploited? hmm... a little of both) their situation and pretended to be something they weren't on stage. And, dear God, the babies. They blew all their money and were forced to perform again. But, no one was as interested as they once were. They became washed up has-beens. It would make an interesting discussion.
I'm so mad at myself for wiki-ing the story as I was reading the book. Please don't do it! Wait until after you've read the book.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes