Review Wednesday: The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

Title: The Aviator's Wife

Author: Melanie Benjamin
1st Date of Publication:February 15, 2013

ISBN: 9780345528674
# of Pages: 416

Genre: Historical Fiction

Age Rating: 13+

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Book Description:

For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.

Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

Drawing on the rich history of the twentieth century—from the late twenties to the mid-sixties—and featuring cameos from such notable characters as Joseph Kennedy and Amelia Earhart, The Aviator’s Wife is a vividly imagined novel of a complicated marriage—revealing both its dizzying highs and its devastating lows. With stunning power and grace, Melanie Benjamin provides new insight into what made this remarkable relationship endure.


Setting: Early 1920s-Mid 1970s, United States (Mostly)

Point of View: 1st person- Anne "Morrow" Lindbergh

Goodreads Rating: 3.87

My Rating: 4.0

 

Part of the Book that Caught My Attention: Both

View on the Cover: The woman on the cover shows that she is a strong and independent person. She also seems to know her way around an airplane and looks at home. The era seems to early to mid 1900s.
View on Title: The name seems pretty classy with high status. It seems like a very defining title.

Pros:

• This story is on the verge of historical nonfiction, but the characters might not have said or acted in a certain way in their every day lives. The author, Melanie Benjamin, used her creativity to enhance the characters and bring some reason to their reactions in history.
• All the main events, such as the abduction of the Lindbergh's son and Charles Lindbergh's antisemitism, are real and recorded in history.
• I enjoyed this because the story is about a real American woman who has made history. Anne Morrow Lindbergh may have been born and married into fame, but she set her own path. She became an author, mother, and an aviator.
• Anne is the second daughter of her wealthy political family so she is not expected to marry anyone of too much importance. All she wanted was to marry the hero, which she managed. Or did she? That's the question the reader constantly thinks about as he/she reads her story.
• The issue of whether women need men to be their heroes in order to feel complete. Women can make their own choices and be their own heroes.
• Charles Lindbergh's character has always seemed like a tortured soul with all the fame and loss he has dealt with alone and while being with Anne.

Cons:

• At times I felt like both Anne and Charles seemed very robotic and almost inhuman.
• I felt that the flashbacks to 1974 when Charles was on the verge of death were a little redundant because not much was said until the very end. Many things kept getting repeated, which annoyed me as I was reading the story. It made me want to read when times were better for Anne and Charles.

Critics' Reviews:

"Benjamin, author of the highly acclaimed Alice I Have Been (2010) and The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb (2011), delivers another stellar historical novel based on the experiences of an extraordinary woman. In this outing, she spotlights Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of wildly famous Charles Lindbergh and pioneering aviatrix and accomplished author in her own right. Though their courtship is the stuff of every girl’s romantic fantasy, time and reality combine to reveal a much different story. Plagued by tragedy and often stifled by her domineering husband, she eventually manages to carve out a quasi-independent life and career for herself. Fictional biography at its finest; serious readers may want to pair this with the recently published Against Wind and Tide, the sixth and final volume of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s copious letters and journal entries"— Booklist
“Utterly unforgettable.”— Publishers Weekly
“An intimate examination of the life and emotional mettle of Anne Morrow.”—The Washington Post
“[This novel] will fascinate history buffs and surprise those who know of her only as ‘the aviator’s wife.’ ”— People

Melanie Benjamin's Website:
http://melaniebenjamin.com/

Other Recommendations:

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek