“He is flying. Is this how I will remember him? As I watch him lying vanquished, defeated by the one thing he could not outmaneuver, I understand that I will have to choose my memories carefully now. There are simply too many.”
And so begins Melanie Benjamin’s tale of Anne Marrow Lindbergh’s journey as the wife of one of the world’s most famous aviators, Charles Lindbergh. Anne is the shy daughter of the millionaire U.S ambassador to Mexico, when she meets Charles, not long after his much celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St Louis. The story follows the Lindbergh’s difficult and complicated marriage between the years 1927 to Charles’ death in 1974.
Benjamin takes us on a journey inside the relationship between one of America’ and the world’s most fascinating couples of their time. They were as popular as any mega star of the modern era, having to don disguises to avoid the press. World history and politics are explored by detailing the family’s life through the Great Depression and the Second World War, including Charles’ association with Nazi Germany.
But above all this is the story of Anne’s journey through a very difficult marriage to self- discovery. It is Anne who keeps the family together in the face of an unbelievably tragic event, which many of you will know of through your history books. This event lead to Congress passing the “Lindbergh Law”. At times I felt like screaming at compliant Anne to find the courage to stand up to her at times, very cruel and unforgiving husband. However, women in the time Anne lived did not have the rights and voice of women today, as Benjamin subtly reminds us.
As the story unfolds Anne’s intelligence, strength, determination and resilience become apparent. She spends most of her married live in the shadow of her famous and dominant husband to the detriment of her own happiness. Yet it is her understanding of the complex Charles that keeps her grounded and willing to be the happy aviator’s wife in public, yet the sad and I think depressed partner and mother in private Despite the many challenges faced by Anne, we discover that she was a successful pilot and navigator in her own right . She traveled with Charles as his only trusted co-pilot on numerous flight’s charting the skies for the commercial planes which would follow. Anne becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States and a celebrated author.
The strong development of the plot and characters keeps the story interesting from beginning to end. The complicated relationship Anne and her own mother and siblings had is explored and only at the end of the story does Anne come to appreciate her mother in particular. The couples’ relationship with their own children is developed with such finesse, that you truly believe you know the Lindbergh family.
Whilst a work of fiction, many events in the novel are true and this kept me transfixed. I highly recommend you put this novel on your to read list.
