Stephanie Dray

A historical fiction novel about the first female US Cabinet Secretary - Frances Perkins, who was the Secretary of Labor under FDR for his entire presidency. Due to her tenacity, we have Social Security, Medicare, a less than 12 hour workday, and rules around child labor, as well as safety in the workplace. I was amazed at her efforts to create a safer and more equitable environment for laborers, and to get America working again during the Great Depression. She is the architect of the New Deal. I am so glad I read this book as I learned so much about this amazing woman who put her country and her commitment to social justice above all else, while struggling with a difficult home situation-her as her husband, and later her daughter, were mentally ill.… (meer)

Though this is a longer read it has a wonderful flow, taking the reader on a first-person journey through the life of Frances Perkins, a woman that I knew nothing about until I picked up this book. I truly believe this is how a historical fiction should be done! It is on the lengthier side, but it has to be with the wealth of information that it bears witness to. If the author wrote about all that Frances Perkins did within her lifetime it would be thousands of pages, so I am thankful for this condensed version, and all of the time and research it must’ve taken to write this book.

There is a lot of ground to cover and the way the author approached it was seamless, making the whole narrative feel very cohesive as we see Frances Perkins professional and personal lives fleshed out in dazzling technicolor. I’ve never really studied the political climate during this particular era, so I found a lot of the history fascinating.

I love how historical fiction gives emotion to historical facts. I’ve studied the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster and what happened in those thirty horrifying minutes several times, but reading the account in this novel made the tragedy technicolor. How working conditions could be so inhumane is sickening. These businesses made people become the machines when it’s supposed to be the other way around. Also seeing the signing of the Social Security Act was truly a touching moment that really summed up everything that Frances and FDR went through together.

I hate that I did not know the name Frances Perkins before now, but I am thankful to not have to say that again. She was a trailblazer and champion that should be taught and talked about more often than she is. She ruffled feathers with her dogged determination for Jewish immigrants and fighting for her social insurance plan which would become what we now know as social security. Without her tireless efforts we would not have programs in place that have aided millions and I am so very grateful for her passion for human rights, even when it was at the expense of her own personal struggles.

*I have voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book which I received from the publisher through NetGalley. All views and opinions expressed are completely honest, and my own.… (meer)

Funny, I wonder if there is a bit of truth in the way the "barbarians" underestimated the Romans by their effete appearance. Sadly, the tribe leaders met with maybe the least impressive, Claudius. Tragically so.

I've always found it odd that the Romans wiped out the Druid practice/religion when they pretty much left all others alone, even encouraging people to build temples in Rome to foreign gods.

Interesting the self-interest on display when the outraged Britons quake under the prospect of becoming Roman slaves when they enslave each other with abandon.

Not sure I'll finish this. It's a foregone conclusion and there is a ton of grisly action and cruelty, to be expected with war, but I'll never listen to it again even if I do get through it. Back to Audible it will go.

Ok, I made it through, but skipped over some more gratuitous passages - droning on about curses and battle blows. It strikes me, in the fierce pride of the women in the book, that the only way they can have any agency is to adopt the bloodthirsty violence made the cultural norm by men. Behaving with gentleness, kindness, compassion and compromise are all weak and despised. Why? Because they are the default position of many women? Because they don't result in absolute domination and oppression? Why do we value those qualities in humans over the others? Why are we, and by we I mean the culture as a whole and men in particular, so afraid of that other side to us? Sometimes called the feminine side, but I don't think it's that specific. It's just been nearly completely wiped out of so much of how we think of ourselves and what we consider normal and natural. Sad really. We never learn and it will be the end of us one day. And, sadly, probably all life on earth as we know it.… (meer)

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
(Available in Print: ©3/30/2021; PUBLISHER: Berkley; ISBN: 978-1984802125; PAGES: 576; Unabridged.)
(Available in Digital: Yes.)
* This version--Audio: ©3/30/2021; PUBLISHER: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group; ISBN: 978-0593346679; FILE SIZE: 689028 KB; DURATION: 24:04:06; PARTS: 22
(Not available in Feature Film or tv (yet?)

Series: No

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
A lengthy, captivating historical fiction novel featuring three heroines of different times; Adrienne de La Fayette ([Revolutionary wars] based on the French marchioness Marie Adrienne Francois de Noailles, Marquis de La Fayette 11/2/1759-12/24/1807), Beatrice Chanler ([WWI] based on the philanthropist, Beatrice Minerva Ashley Chanler / born Minnie W. Collins 5/7/1880-6/19/1946); and Marthe Simone ([WWII] based on a medley of actual prominent women of France in the 1940’s.)
Nearly as prominent as the characters, is the castle in Chavaniac, France, where La Fayette was born and later returns to with his wife; so, central to the La Fayettes through the US and French revolutions, it also later becomes, by virtue of a WWI philanthropist’s devotion to his reputation, central in WWI and WWII, in providing shelter and sustenance to war orphans, and strength to the women who serve them while courageously resisting the cruelty and oppression of invaders.
I found it well pieced together and captivating, and enjoyed the author’s epilogue separating the facts from the fiction and her decisions regarding the novel’s creation and direction.

AUTHOR:
Stephanie Dray: There doesn’t seem to be a Wikipedia entry to tell me her birthday, but her own website says she is an author of women’s fiction; that her award-winning work has been translated in eight different languages and tops lists for the most anticipated reads of the year. She lives in Maryland, or did when the bio was written, with her husband, cats, and history books.

NARRATOR(S):
Tavia Gilbert (Beatrice): I don’t find a Wikipedia entry for Tavia so I don’t know her birthday. Goodreads says she is “an award-winning narrator with 300 audiobooks under her belt.” IMDb says she is a “Grammy nominee, Audiobook Narrator of the Year, and winner of the Best Female Narrator Audie Award, Tavia Gilbert is a producer, writer, and acclaimed narrator of more than 700 full-cast and multi-voice audio books for virtually every publisher in the industry . . .” She did well with the Beatrice character.;
Emma Bering (Adrienne): I don’t find a Wikipedia page for Emma either, so I don’t know her birthday. Audiobookstore-dot-com says she is an Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator and lists a few of the books she has read. I thought she did very well with the voice of Adrienne;
Rachel Jacobs (Marthe): I don’t find a Wikipedia page for Rachel. I see her own website where it says she has narrated over 100 books. She did well, with the exception that her voices for the Baroness and for Beatrice seemed intended to portray the more mature age of these characters, which seemed like a sacrifice to the emotional states the text suggested they should have been in, well particularly the baroness—for me, these voices were kind of society-mavenish and cheery sounding, like they were in the middle of hosting a grand ball.

GENRE:
Historical Fiction

LOCATIONS:
France; United States

TIME FRAME:
1770’s; 1910’s; 1940’s

SUBJECTS:
Family; Famous wars; Revolutionary war; WWI; WWII; History; Jewish; France; United States; Adrienne de Lafayette; Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafeyette; Beatrice Chanler; Willaim Astor Chanler; Chateau de Lafeyette; Orphans

DEDICATION:
“To my dad, who patiently critiqued his teenaged daughter’s first novel, and never told her how bad it really was”

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter Two (Adrienne Paris April 1774:
“In the ancient regime into which I was born, obedience was the rule. Thus it strangely gratifying now to remember that when I was very young—before deference and duty to my father became the hallmark of my character—it was my nature to question. Indeed, when I was a little child, my long-suffering maman once jested that my favorite word was why.
But, of course, she was the one who taught me to ask . . .
It was Maman’s habit to invite my sisters and me into her sumptuous gold and crimson chambers, where, seated by the fire in her favorite upholstered armchair—the one with gilded arms and embroidered with fluer-de-lis—she instructed us with soft eloquence and a sense of justice to believe that though we were girls, we had a right to our own consciences. We certainly tried her patience in adhering to that principle in matters large and small. Little Rosalie’s violent tantrums, pretty Pauline’s aloof disdain, Clotilde’s refusal of all things feminine, and my persistence in doubt in God.”

RATING:
4 stars. Well done.
STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
1/6/2022– 1/24/2022
… (meer)