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A review by gobbleobble
The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin
4.0
My wife picked this up at a consignment shop and we've decided that we want to get back into our 2-person book club again this year after taking hiatus since Ellie was born. It's not typically the type of book I'd go for, as I tend to prefer fantasy/sci-fi type fiction, but it's easy to know it's well written and would definitely be a very enjoyable read for people who DO tend toward this genre. Even as someone who doesn't, I still liked it well enough, so my score is intended to be more reflective of the target demographic.
Since it's historical fiction, I'm going to discuss a few details that might seem like spoilers if it were a completely fictional book. All that I knew of the Lindberghs before was that Charles was the first man to fly across the Atlantic. I knew nothing of the kidnapping of their baby, their support of Hitler, or even Anne's role in their relationship as a very capable pilot and navigator herself. As a result, the first third of the book was what I expected the entirety of the book to be and the remainder was an unexpected surprise. The story of a stolen and murdered baby wasn't completely my cup of tea as a father of young children, and the explanations of why and how the Lindberghs ever supported the Nazi party were also not exactly what I would describe as pleasant reading. But it was all interesting enough and knowing that there was a historical basis from the life of an American hero kept me going.
The entire book was interesting in regards to feeling somewhat educational, and I was glad the author included some basic notes at the end to try to be more specific about which events were more accurate, which were completely fictitious and unsupported by documentation, and which were combinations of a slew of actual events. The book is told entirely from Anne's perspective, and, of course, the level of intimacy behind Anne's thoughts are all completely as the author imagines them, but it created a necessary aspect to the narration to keep things endearing.
If you already lean toward this genre, you should absolutely read it. If you don't, then you probably won't be bored, but you won't be blown away either. If you read with a partner where compromising on differences in genre tastes is sometimes necessary, you could do much, much worse than The Aviator's Wife.
Since it's historical fiction, I'm going to discuss a few details that might seem like spoilers if it were a completely fictional book. All that I knew of the Lindberghs before was that Charles was the first man to fly across the Atlantic. I knew nothing of the kidnapping of their baby, their support of Hitler, or even Anne's role in their relationship as a very capable pilot and navigator herself. As a result, the first third of the book was what I expected the entirety of the book to be and the remainder was an unexpected surprise. The story of a stolen and murdered baby wasn't completely my cup of tea as a father of young children, and the explanations of why and how the Lindberghs ever supported the Nazi party were also not exactly what I would describe as pleasant reading. But it was all interesting enough and knowing that there was a historical basis from the life of an American hero kept me going.
The entire book was interesting in regards to feeling somewhat educational, and I was glad the author included some basic notes at the end to try to be more specific about which events were more accurate, which were completely fictitious and unsupported by documentation, and which were combinations of a slew of actual events. The book is told entirely from Anne's perspective, and, of course, the level of intimacy behind Anne's thoughts are all completely as the author imagines them, but it created a necessary aspect to the narration to keep things endearing.
If you already lean toward this genre, you should absolutely read it. If you don't, then you probably won't be bored, but you won't be blown away either. If you read with a partner where compromising on differences in genre tastes is sometimes necessary, you could do much, much worse than The Aviator's Wife.