A review by jmebooks
The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

5.0

I loved this book. I knew a lot of little tidbits about the Lindberghs, but having it all knit together like this, and through the lens of Anne was just really compelling. Imma just say it: Charles Lindbergh ... what a d!ck. I felt like this novel gave him a fair shake without giving him a free pass, and in a way that wasn't annoying to me. Their marriage was one based on submission and dominance... and I don't know if that's a product of their time or their personalities. The kidnapping and death of their first child was so.heartwrenching to read... and I appreciated how that story was incorporated throughout the whole book. Because honestly, how do you not have that impact everything in your life?

I want to read more books like this, about the unheralded and uncelebrated women of history. Anne Morrow Lindbergh did so much in her own rite and kept her family together to boot (while Charles was off making new families. Dick.) She's amazing and, yes, he flew a plane across the ocean first - that's big - but there's more to his story.