The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

This was a book club pick and was on my radar so I gave it a go.

Let's get out of the way the did or didn't I like it question...yes, I liked this book very much. It was well written and very quickly does it make you forget that it is a novel. Melanie Benjamin writes in such a way that it makes this very readable and draws the reader in.


Now, the content. Using actual events and non-fiction writing about Anne and Charles this novel tries to paint a picture of Anne Morrow Lindberg and her life as the wife of one of the most famous men of the day.

She starts out the shy daughter of a diplomat and becomes the wife of the most famous pilot pretty much ever. He isn't a warm man, he doesn't show any real emotion and despises it in Anne and so forbids it. Even when their child is kidnapped and killed.

The story here touches on how he controlled her, including making her share his views and she allows it. She doesn't find her own voice and strength in time to tell him she doesn't share his views on Hitler and Jews. She isn't innocent, she knows it is wrong but doesn't (can't?) stand up to him.

He is not a likable character/person and at times it becomes difficult to like her. But in the end I found I did like her very much. I know what it is like to feel weak and have that reenforced by those who it benefits to have that feeling remain in place. In this telling she finds her footing and begins to stand up to him in her own way. But through it all she seems to realize she loves him even as she dislikes him.

(finished July 30, 2014)