The Aviator’s Wife is a historical novel, but I think the best way to describe it is as a fictional memoir or fictional autobiography. The book starts with college senior Anne Morrow, and concludes near the end of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s public life. It is a fascinating exploration of an incredibly famous marriage and woman.
This book is through the eyes of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. She is a fascinating character. She is the daughter of an ambassador and Smith’s president and she is highly educated. From a social perspective, superior to the farm-raised Charles Lindbergh – her higher education attainment is an issues at points in their marriage. She strives to be his perfect wife, while feeling conflicted about their life and choices.
It’s fascinating reading this book and seeing Anne as she grows from low-self esteem college student to nervous bride and mother, to the tragic Mother of the Lindbergh Baby to finally being in a place where she has agency over her life.
This book could easily be construed as an incredibly unsympathetic take on Charles Lindbergh, but I don’t think that would be fully accurate. By all accounts, Charles Lindbergh was a difficult man. He was charismatic and domineering and held some really screwed up opinions that nevertheless had support at the time. But he is still given sympathy in this piece, even as he is portrayed a self-centered, controlling man. The end, where he is seen to be carrying around a picture of the son he never fully mourned, is especially poignant.
I really enjoyed this book. Though Anne Morrow Lindbergh had many independent accomplishments, including bestselling author and the first woman to hold a first-class glider’s license, she is always overshadowed by her husband. Even her Wikipedia entry is focused on her husband, taking more space to describe his affairs and illegitimate children than it does to describe her children. In reality, she was a complex woman who balanced the demands of being a public wife with being a person with her own aspirations.
ErinKwed 