The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story by Lily Koppel

I've had this on my want-to-read list for quite some time, but when I saw it was about to be a TV series I felt the need to read it before the show aired. I am very glad I did.

When the first men to join the NASA program as astronauts were announced, as much attention and scrutiny if not more was focused on their wives. They had to be the epitome of the perfect 1950's housewives well into the 1960's and 1970's.

Most of the book tell the story of the original seven wives:

• Rene Carpenter (wife of Scott Carpenter)
• Trudy Cooper (wife of "Gordo" Cooper)
• Annie Glen (wife of John Glenn)
• Betty Grissom (wife of Gus Grissom)
• Jo Schirra (wife of Wally Schirra)
• Louise Shepard (wife of Alan Shepard)
• Marge Slayton (wife of Deke Slayton)  

They were later joined by among others, Janet Armstrong, Marilyn Lovell, and Joan Aldrin. 

These women met with presidents, kings, and movie stars. They were shadowed by a crew from Life magazine. They were expected to behave a certain way and support their husbands no matter what. They were part of an elite club that was at once supportive and competitive. It was believed that the better the marriage appeared the more likely the best space flights assignments would be given to their husbands. Some of them truly had loving marriages but many were a mess. Infidelity was rampant in these marriages but divorce was unthinkable. 

But these women, oh how strong they were. Their husbands were so often absent from their homes, they were practically single mothers. And even when the men were home on weekends NASA admonished the wives to not bother the husbands with household chores, problems with the children, or any other mundane things. They were basically to feed their men well (steak and eggs was a big thing), and let them be. 

Over the course of their time as NASA wives Kennedy was assassinated, so was MLK Jr and RFK, the war in Vietnam raged on, feminism was becoming a real movement, and they were discouraged from modernizing their attitudes, they kept beehive hairdos longer than anyone. But they formed a bond, were not as blind or naive as people thought, and most of them survived and did it well. Some became widows and eventually many divorced. 

I do not know how they will be portrayed on the upcoming television version but Lily Koppel does a beautiful job telling their story. These are amazing women!!

(Finished May 23, 2015)