Great story of a famous flying couple. Very insightful. Recommend this to historical fiction fans. Thank you NetGalley for sharing.

This is the story of Anne Morrow’s marriage to Charles Lindbergh. Fictionalized true stories allow authors to explore their imaginations, but they are ultimately constrained by the reality of the subject’s life. We learn about Anne’s romance with Charles and the well-publicized kidnapping of their child. This could be the stuff of melodrama — celebrity combined with sensationalism — but Anne’s grief seems genuine. We’re supposed to sympathize with Anne when, in her later years, she finally rejects her antisemitic isolationist husband, but Anne’s passivity until her inevitable discovery of an underlying feminism made her a dull character in my mind.

This is what historical fiction should be. We all know about Charles Lindbergh, and we may have read Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book, but how much do we really know about them as a couple. Charles was not an easy marriage partner. He was self-centered and expected his family to be run like a military unit. Told in first person by Anne, we see an unknown side to both of them. After reading this book, my admiration for Anne as a person, not just "Lindbergh's wife" has grown.

I have been fascinated by the Lindbergh’s since I first saw a story about them and their kidnapped child in my READ magazine in 6th grade. It wasn’t something I learned about in school otherwise and not in history class; I’m confident that if that outdated magazine had not come into my possession, I would likely have made it through school without ever learning about them. Of course Charles Lindbergh is known most for his historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean, but what does the world know about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I knew virtually nothing.

I love that Benjamin chose to tell the story of Anne. She was always the child in the family that stayed in the shadow, but upon her engagement and marriage she was thrust immediately into the spotlight. She did an amazing job of creating the woman who had to walk a line of identity trying to figure out who she was for the public, for Charles, for her children, and finally for herself. The struggle is palpable and really the heart of the story. I found Charles to be a very dislikable character most of the time which is the exact opposite of the heroic image that is and was portrayed to the media.

The most interesting element for me was the way the story was structured. It bounces back and forth between the “present” which is with Anne accompanying Charles to Hawaii as he is dying, and the past of her life with Charles from the time they met. During my time reading I hated this structuring. I already didn’t like Charles and I really didn’t care that he was dying and I felt like I should. But as I look back on the experience a week or so after reading it I do appreciate the structure more. It showed how much Anne had grown and changed from when we first met her and when her time being in Charles shadow was coming to an end. I also think that the times that were chosen to break into the narrative and jump to the “present” were well chosen to flow with either the emotions or events transpiring between both times. I also really liked how more recent revelations about Charles Lindbergh were woven into that “present” storyline.

Overall this story pulled at the heartstrings and told a compelling story of a woman who lived her life in the spotlight while at the same time was not seen.