Book Review:THE AVIATOR'S WIFE

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin is another novelized  "autobiography". This time we are in Anne Morrow Lindbergh's head as she tells of  her meeting the great American hero Charles Lindbergh and of her life as his wife.

Anne, the shy daughter of the United States ambassador to Mexico, is a college student who is very much in the shadow of the rest of her family. When the celebrated Charles Lindbergh visits the embassy in Mexico City, it is assumed that his interest would be captured by Anne's vibrant sister Elizabeth. Instead Charles and Anne are married and spend their lives flying around the world always surrounded by the crush of publicity seekers.

This is a genre of literature that seems to have become very popular recently. And, it is one that I personally do not enjoy. In the case of The Aviator's Wife, instead of getting caught up in the characters and the story line, I kept wondering how accurate the scene was. Did he or she really act that way or say that!

This would have been an intriquing plot for a novel. The bright,charming young woman who lives under the influence of a demanding, selfish man and has to fight to grow into being herself is a good story line. We love seeing strong women take charge of their own lives.

Something did not ring true in this book. I understand that Charles Lindbergh was not a particularly kind man, but the author portrrayed him as being so self centered that he was cruel ...maybe more naive than uncaring when it came to other people's feelings. The author did explain this on his childhood and the constant scrutinity of the media.

I should have felt more sympathy for Anne. Instead, I wanted to shake her. Here was a woman who in real life had achieved some great honors on her own, but the book had her as always seing herself as reflected through the eyes of those around her...the Ambassador's daughter, Elizabeth's quiet sister, the mother of the murdered baby and, of course, the aviator's wife. It was a relief when she finally published Gift from the Sea and started to have a better understanding of her own worth.

Two good things came out of The Aviator's Wife for me. I want to check on what I think I know about Charles and Anne Lindbergh and I want to read Gift From the Sea. In the meantime, I will try to stay away from "Fictionalized Books About Famous People and How They Really Are Just Like the Rest of Us, Only Richer".