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An Elegant Woman
For fans of Mary Beth Keane and Jennifer Egan, this powerful, moving multigenerational saga from National Book Award finalist Martha McPhee—ten years in the making—explores one family’s story against the sweep of 20th century American history.
Drawn from the author’s own family history, An Elegant Woman is a story of discovery and reinvention, following four generations of women in one American family. As Isadora, a novelist, and two of her sisters sift through the artifacts of their forebears’ lives, trying to decide what to salvage and what to toss, the narrative shifts to a winter day in 1910 at a train station in Ohio. Two girls wait in the winter cold with their mother—the mercurial Glenna Stewart—to depart for a new life in the West. As Glenna campaigns in Montana for women’s suffrage and teaches in one-room schoolhouses, Tommy takes care of her little sister, Katherine: trapping animals, begging, keeping house, cooking, while Katherine goes to school. When Katherine graduates, Tommy makes a decision that will change the course of both of their lives.
A profound meditation on memory, history, and legacy, An Elegant Woman follows one woman over the course of the 20th century, taking the reader from a drought-stricken farm in Montana to a yellow Victorian in Maine; from the halls of a psychiatric hospital in London to a wedding gown fitting at Bergdorf Goodman; from a house in small town Ohio to a family reunion at a sweltering New Jersey pig roast. Framed by Isadora’s efforts to retell her grandmother’s journey—and understand her own—the novel is an evocative exploration of the stories we tell ourselves, and what we leave out.
Drawn from the author’s own family history, An Elegant Woman is a story of discovery and reinvention, following four generations of women in one American family. As Isadora, a novelist, and two of her sisters sift through the artifacts of their forebears’ lives, trying to decide what to salvage and what to toss, the narrative shifts to a winter day in 1910 at a train station in Ohio. Two girls wait in the winter cold with their mother—the mercurial Glenna Stewart—to depart for a new life in the West. As Glenna campaigns in Montana for women’s suffrage and teaches in one-room schoolhouses, Tommy takes care of her little sister, Katherine: trapping animals, begging, keeping house, cooking, while Katherine goes to school. When Katherine graduates, Tommy makes a decision that will change the course of both of their lives.
A profound meditation on memory, history, and legacy, An Elegant Woman follows one woman over the course of the 20th century, taking the reader from a drought-stricken farm in Montana to a yellow Victorian in Maine; from the halls of a psychiatric hospital in London to a wedding gown fitting at Bergdorf Goodman; from a house in small town Ohio to a family reunion at a sweltering New Jersey pig roast. Framed by Isadora’s efforts to retell her grandmother’s journey—and understand her own—the novel is an evocative exploration of the stories we tell ourselves, and what we leave out.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published June 2, 2020
296 people are currently reading
8681 people want to read
About the author
Martha McPhee
13 books162 followersMartha McPhee graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and received her M.F.A. from Columbia University.
She is the author of five novels: An Elegant Woman, Dear Money; L'America; Gorgeous Lies; and Bright Angel Time. Her work has been honored by a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Gorgeous Lies was a finalist for a National Book Award. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children, and teaches at Hofstra University.
She is the author of five novels: An Elegant Woman, Dear Money; L'America; Gorgeous Lies; and Bright Angel Time. Her work has been honored by a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Gorgeous Lies was a finalist for a National Book Award. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children, and teaches at Hofstra University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 183 reviews
May 30, 2020
Many family sagas reflect some dysfunction and unhappiness and in reality that’s probably true of most families. This story is a complex one with complicated characters spanning several generations. Identity questions abound here. Who people really are, how they see themselves, who they want to be, who others want them to be, who they want their children and grandchildren to be, so much of this reflected in mother - daughter relationships. Just want exactly is this family’s history ? What does it take to be who you want to be - maybe abandoning your children or perhaps making questionable decisions to follow your vision of who you want to be or maybe creating your own family history to move forward and make better the lives of your children and grandchildren?
Tommy and her sister Katherine are left to be cared for by a loving couple, kind people who took them in when their mother Glenna who has left their adulterous father, leaves them to teach and follow her ideals. She takes them back, only to move from place to place, and leaves them on their own with Tommy, so young at 12 , left to take care of her younger sister, Katherine. All of this making for complicated relationship between the sisters, between mothers and daughters that continues to be complex over the years. Tommy moves forward in many ways carrying her mother’s notions of their ancestry, compelled to insure that her children do better than she did, just as she wanted a better life than her mother, money and status and a seemingly perfect life. Questionable decisions with good intentions make it difficult to fully like or dislike these characters. The story begins with Isadora, Tommy’s favorite granddaughter sorting through family heirlooms of a sort with her siblings after their mother dies. Too much happens here to say even a little more about the plot and the characters. Suffice it to say that Glenna, Tommy, Katherine, Winter and others are fully realized and whether you like them all of the time or not, the author gives us a clear sense of who there are with all of their complexities. A compelling story, with a few moments of borderline “soap opera”, but one that I was always interested in.
One of the things I especially liked about this story was the sense of time and place, in particular in 1910 when Glenna takes off with her daughters for Montana. Throughout, I got a sense of what was was happening in the country - women’s suffrage, the wars. The flu pandemic of 1918 , unfortunately, felt uncomfortably familiar. While most of the story takes places in the past years, I was anxious to see how the youngest generation would meaningfully connect to the family history, both real and perhaps imagined, especially Isadora who tells the story. How much does our family legacy shape who we are ? I loved the last part of the book and the ending which I thought, lovingly came full circle.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Simon & Shuster through Edelweiss.
Tommy and her sister Katherine are left to be cared for by a loving couple, kind people who took them in when their mother Glenna who has left their adulterous father, leaves them to teach and follow her ideals. She takes them back, only to move from place to place, and leaves them on their own with Tommy, so young at 12 , left to take care of her younger sister, Katherine. All of this making for complicated relationship between the sisters, between mothers and daughters that continues to be complex over the years. Tommy moves forward in many ways carrying her mother’s notions of their ancestry, compelled to insure that her children do better than she did, just as she wanted a better life than her mother, money and status and a seemingly perfect life. Questionable decisions with good intentions make it difficult to fully like or dislike these characters. The story begins with Isadora, Tommy’s favorite granddaughter sorting through family heirlooms of a sort with her siblings after their mother dies. Too much happens here to say even a little more about the plot and the characters. Suffice it to say that Glenna, Tommy, Katherine, Winter and others are fully realized and whether you like them all of the time or not, the author gives us a clear sense of who there are with all of their complexities. A compelling story, with a few moments of borderline “soap opera”, but one that I was always interested in.
One of the things I especially liked about this story was the sense of time and place, in particular in 1910 when Glenna takes off with her daughters for Montana. Throughout, I got a sense of what was was happening in the country - women’s suffrage, the wars. The flu pandemic of 1918 , unfortunately, felt uncomfortably familiar. While most of the story takes places in the past years, I was anxious to see how the youngest generation would meaningfully connect to the family history, both real and perhaps imagined, especially Isadora who tells the story. How much does our family legacy shape who we are ? I loved the last part of the book and the ending which I thought, lovingly came full circle.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Simon & Shuster through Edelweiss.
June 20, 2020
The titillating- noticeable- prose ‘felt’ too narcissistically refined to me.
Or.... maybe it’s just the contrast of how different I am from being ‘elegant’?
I found myself asking questions....
.... Is the writing itself the main character? Because at times I felt the writing was more interesting than the story.
I found myself thinking about ‘elegance’ in a general way...
and how elegance has evolved in society.... especially for women?
....What were the positives and negatives of being elegant? ( historically speaking)?
Over time, the above questions were slightly answered for me.
I’ve often asked myself ( as a woman), if I had to choose another period in history to have lived - what would I pick?
I admit I got bored with the lyrical descriptions. I appreciated the lovely skill from the author - but wasn’t captivated by the storytelling.
....Stews...recipes...wedding dresses...crown white hair....pretty girls with bright blue eyes... buster brown shoes...A Tiffany diamond....
even the ‘aw’ of finding hidden treasures in a trunk in the basement...just wasn’t all that fascinating to me.
I wanted to like this book.
I usually enjoy family sagas with internal thoughts of characters....but for some reason....
I just lost interest in the family history - legacies - lies - etc.
An interesting message I took away though,
was it was the things these women ( elegant or not), gave away....
that were much more powerful than anything new they acquired.
The novel’s thought process about generational relationships was mentally interesting.
But....
....The descriptive writing over-powered the story.
I lost interest somewhere in the middle.
I don’t need lots of action in books.
I enjoy reflective narrative.
Family saga-multi-generational stories are usually right up my alley.
But...
I found this book a little tiring and long.... ( this really is more ME and my TASTE, than the authors work)....
For me - I felt it could have used some more editing.
It was harder to get through this 400+page novel with dire page turning interest - than it was the 800 page novel, “Night Sleep Death The Stars” by Joyce Carol Oats.....
a book I could not put that book down!!
Overall -( for me) I’d conclude this book was:
‘Too’ dignified...
‘Too’ decorated with aesthetics...
‘Too’ much licking the envelopes; not enough interest about the letters themselves.
This was the first book I’ve read by Martha McPhee.
Her ‘skill’ is impressive. In ‘parts’ I enjoyed it.
but....
I didn’t feel emotionally connected enough to enthusiastically recommend it to my friends.
2.8 stars....( low 3 stars)
Or.... maybe it’s just the contrast of how different I am from being ‘elegant’?
I found myself asking questions....
.... Is the writing itself the main character? Because at times I felt the writing was more interesting than the story.
I found myself thinking about ‘elegance’ in a general way...
and how elegance has evolved in society.... especially for women?
....What were the positives and negatives of being elegant? ( historically speaking)?
Over time, the above questions were slightly answered for me.
I’ve often asked myself ( as a woman), if I had to choose another period in history to have lived - what would I pick?
I admit I got bored with the lyrical descriptions. I appreciated the lovely skill from the author - but wasn’t captivated by the storytelling.
....Stews...recipes...wedding dresses...crown white hair....pretty girls with bright blue eyes... buster brown shoes...A Tiffany diamond....
even the ‘aw’ of finding hidden treasures in a trunk in the basement...just wasn’t all that fascinating to me.
I wanted to like this book.
I usually enjoy family sagas with internal thoughts of characters....but for some reason....
I just lost interest in the family history - legacies - lies - etc.
An interesting message I took away though,
was it was the things these women ( elegant or not), gave away....
that were much more powerful than anything new they acquired.
The novel’s thought process about generational relationships was mentally interesting.
But....
....The descriptive writing over-powered the story.
I lost interest somewhere in the middle.
I don’t need lots of action in books.
I enjoy reflective narrative.
Family saga-multi-generational stories are usually right up my alley.
But...
I found this book a little tiring and long.... ( this really is more ME and my TASTE, than the authors work)....
For me - I felt it could have used some more editing.
It was harder to get through this 400+page novel with dire page turning interest - than it was the 800 page novel, “Night Sleep Death The Stars” by Joyce Carol Oats.....
a book I could not put that book down!!
Overall -( for me) I’d conclude this book was:
‘Too’ dignified...
‘Too’ decorated with aesthetics...
‘Too’ much licking the envelopes; not enough interest about the letters themselves.
This was the first book I’ve read by Martha McPhee.
Her ‘skill’ is impressive. In ‘parts’ I enjoyed it.
but....
I didn’t feel emotionally connected enough to enthusiastically recommend it to my friends.
2.8 stars....( low 3 stars)
June 3, 2020
3. 5 The year is 1910 and Montana is calling for workers, new opportunities to those who take up the challenge. Glenna, leaves her husband and takes her two young daughters, to the new land where she is sure they will thrive. Glenna does, but it is soon apparent her job prospects are better, sans her children. Leaving them with a farming family, who comes to live them, a love that is returned, she shows up a few years later. Taking them away, they are now pretty much left on their own. The eldest Teddy, providing for her younger sister.
This is a generational novel, but for me the middle lagged, Teddy's story went on too long. What this novel does well though us show how the past reflects in the girls future. Past traumas that are very much in evidence in the decisions they make. How these decisions reflect in how they raised and the expectations they had, for their own children. How sometimes pretending something is will make it so, with hard work and the formidable will to move forward.
This did good my interest, but in some spots more than others. There were even a few surprises along the way. I just think it's length bogged this down, too detailed, could have been a little more succinct.
ARC from Edelweiss.
This is a generational novel, but for me the middle lagged, Teddy's story went on too long. What this novel does well though us show how the past reflects in the girls future. Past traumas that are very much in evidence in the decisions they make. How these decisions reflect in how they raised and the expectations they had, for their own children. How sometimes pretending something is will make it so, with hard work and the formidable will to move forward.
This did good my interest, but in some spots more than others. There were even a few surprises along the way. I just think it's length bogged this down, too detailed, could have been a little more succinct.
ARC from Edelweiss.
May 27, 2020
4.5 stars rounded up
Since there isn't as much press for this one, I want to provide a short summary for those reading this review. Isadora (a novelist) and two of her sisters are going through their grandmother's belongings as she has passed away and it is their job to review what can be sold or thrown out. You know the deal, that person in your family that saves absolutely everything? Well, that's this scenario. What a nightmare, right? Well, what makes this story so special is that the granddaughters actually know some of the history behind the objects in this house because their grandmother Katherine (aka Thelma, Tommy - more on this later), made it a point to repeatedly tell her children and their children the stories of their family dating all the way back to Mary Queen of Scots up through the Civil War.
Isadora is the granddaughter who was closest to Katherine so while her sisters look at most everything as junk and something to get rid of or sell, she treasures the history in the belongings and wants to write a story on her grandmother. It is from Isadora's point of view that we learn about their grandmother's life. Beginning in the winter of 1910, at a train station where Katherine's mother, Glenna, is taking her and her younger sister out West to Montana to start a new life because Glenna is leaving their father in the dead of night due to his philandering.
The characters in this book are WOW. They are fully developed characters who are powerful, flawed, headstrong and human. There is something in here for everyone. Though Glenna is extremely unlikeable, there is something to be said about how she lived her life and the courage it took to move around the state of Montana and Nevada with the gusto she had. I most enjoyed the dynamic between the sisters, Thelma (who went by Tommy and later became Katherine), and Katherine. I could write a dissertation on their relationship, but I won't because this review already is too long. There is a lot to dislike about both sisters, but I think that's one of the other themes of this book - the humanity we all share as flawed beings. We all make mistakes and all do the best we can in the environment we are raised. The decision that Thelma makes sets both sisters on a course that will reverberate through the generations.
The largest theme discussed in the book, which caused me to ponder about my own family history, (which I unfortunately know very little about), is that what the younger generations know is all based on the stories we are told from our ancestors. If there is no written record (or if that record is difficult to obtain), we can only rely on word of mouth. With this, falsehoods can be inserted and once those falsehoods are accepted as truth, events can be altered. These tiny alterations play a big part in the history of this family and was an interesting perspective that I hadn't considered before.
If you hadn't guessed already - this was a freaking fantastic read. I haven't read historical fiction in a long time (on a genre hiatus), but this reminded me why I love reading about the past. Nostalgia is a powerful force and the history nerd in me was geeking out entirely while reading this meticulously researched book that spanned from 1910 to present times and followed each generation. Multi-generational stories are my JAM and this did not disappoint in the slightest. I read somewhere that this is loosely based on the author's family and so I can see why this book was a decade in the making.
My last thought has to do with generational stories overall, but its something I wish to note here.
There was some slight confusion as I tried to grasp whose point of view we were listening to in the beginning. Once I got the rhythm down, I didn't want to stop reading. I become increasingly annoyed with my generation when reading these books. Most of the time, we are depicted as vapid, money hungry with no regard or appreciation for the past. The steady decline in American life in large part due to loosely regulated capitalism and corporate greed makes me want to vomit. Being born in the early 80's, I remember enough about life with department stores, catalogues, corner/general stores - essentially a more small town feel. I think with advances in technology and globalization there are a lot of positives, but it makes me wish I could take a time machine and visit the world my grandparents grew up in. Make no mistake, I'm not naive enough to think their lives were perfect, but I think human beings had a lot more appreciation for their work, their reputations, their word and how they treated one another than we do now. It really makes me so sad that so many contemporaries have little to no appreciation for the hard work and sacrifices of our ancestors. How hard they worked to make our lives better and how little we regard those struggles because we are so busy living our lives. I want to make it clear that I also think we have a lot more to contend with than previous generations, particularly in a world where the 1% rules everyone else (this is before COVID), but I think the American way of life that my grandparents fought for is dying and I sincerely hope that my generation realizes this and is able to lead us to a better and happier place soon. (Didn't mean to opine for so long about this since it's a little off topic, but the book brought up some very strong feelings for me on this topic. Apologies for the soap box!)
I cannot urge you enough to read this book and I sincerely hope you do.
Thank you to Scribner and Martha McPhee for sending me a print copy to review. Thank you also to Netgalley for providing an egalley to review as well.
Review Date: 05/27/2020
Publication Date: 06/02/2020
Since there isn't as much press for this one, I want to provide a short summary for those reading this review. Isadora (a novelist) and two of her sisters are going through their grandmother's belongings as she has passed away and it is their job to review what can be sold or thrown out. You know the deal, that person in your family that saves absolutely everything? Well, that's this scenario. What a nightmare, right? Well, what makes this story so special is that the granddaughters actually know some of the history behind the objects in this house because their grandmother Katherine (aka Thelma, Tommy - more on this later), made it a point to repeatedly tell her children and their children the stories of their family dating all the way back to Mary Queen of Scots up through the Civil War.
Isadora is the granddaughter who was closest to Katherine so while her sisters look at most everything as junk and something to get rid of or sell, she treasures the history in the belongings and wants to write a story on her grandmother. It is from Isadora's point of view that we learn about their grandmother's life. Beginning in the winter of 1910, at a train station where Katherine's mother, Glenna, is taking her and her younger sister out West to Montana to start a new life because Glenna is leaving their father in the dead of night due to his philandering.
The characters in this book are WOW. They are fully developed characters who are powerful, flawed, headstrong and human. There is something in here for everyone. Though Glenna is extremely unlikeable, there is something to be said about how she lived her life and the courage it took to move around the state of Montana and Nevada with the gusto she had. I most enjoyed the dynamic between the sisters, Thelma (who went by Tommy and later became Katherine), and Katherine. I could write a dissertation on their relationship, but I won't because this review already is too long. There is a lot to dislike about both sisters, but I think that's one of the other themes of this book - the humanity we all share as flawed beings. We all make mistakes and all do the best we can in the environment we are raised. The decision that Thelma makes sets both sisters on a course that will reverberate through the generations.
The largest theme discussed in the book, which caused me to ponder about my own family history, (which I unfortunately know very little about), is that what the younger generations know is all based on the stories we are told from our ancestors. If there is no written record (or if that record is difficult to obtain), we can only rely on word of mouth. With this, falsehoods can be inserted and once those falsehoods are accepted as truth, events can be altered. These tiny alterations play a big part in the history of this family and was an interesting perspective that I hadn't considered before.
If you hadn't guessed already - this was a freaking fantastic read. I haven't read historical fiction in a long time (on a genre hiatus), but this reminded me why I love reading about the past. Nostalgia is a powerful force and the history nerd in me was geeking out entirely while reading this meticulously researched book that spanned from 1910 to present times and followed each generation. Multi-generational stories are my JAM and this did not disappoint in the slightest. I read somewhere that this is loosely based on the author's family and so I can see why this book was a decade in the making.
My last thought has to do with generational stories overall, but its something I wish to note here.
There was some slight confusion as I tried to grasp whose point of view we were listening to in the beginning. Once I got the rhythm down, I didn't want to stop reading. I become increasingly annoyed with my generation when reading these books. Most of the time, we are depicted as vapid, money hungry with no regard or appreciation for the past. The steady decline in American life in large part due to loosely regulated capitalism and corporate greed makes me want to vomit. Being born in the early 80's, I remember enough about life with department stores, catalogues, corner/general stores - essentially a more small town feel. I think with advances in technology and globalization there are a lot of positives, but it makes me wish I could take a time machine and visit the world my grandparents grew up in. Make no mistake, I'm not naive enough to think their lives were perfect, but I think human beings had a lot more appreciation for their work, their reputations, their word and how they treated one another than we do now. It really makes me so sad that so many contemporaries have little to no appreciation for the hard work and sacrifices of our ancestors. How hard they worked to make our lives better and how little we regard those struggles because we are so busy living our lives. I want to make it clear that I also think we have a lot more to contend with than previous generations, particularly in a world where the 1% rules everyone else (this is before COVID), but I think the American way of life that my grandparents fought for is dying and I sincerely hope that my generation realizes this and is able to lead us to a better and happier place soon. (Didn't mean to opine for so long about this since it's a little off topic, but the book brought up some very strong feelings for me on this topic. Apologies for the soap box!)
I cannot urge you enough to read this book and I sincerely hope you do.
Thank you to Scribner and Martha McPhee for sending me a print copy to review. Thank you also to Netgalley for providing an egalley to review as well.
Review Date: 05/27/2020
Publication Date: 06/02/2020
July 29, 2020
"Multi-generational" is a buzzword that always gets my attention and even better when it's about the relationships between women. An Elegant Woman didn't disappoint. I especially loved that this book is based on the author's own experiences. The skipping between characters was a little confusing at times but didn't detract from the story at all.
April 8, 2020
I usually really enjoy multigenerational stories like this and I did like many parts of this book and I liked the characters. I think it was the layout and flow of the story that threw me, the way it meandered, jumped and then meandered some more. I never got completely settled into the story.
July 9, 2020
A "moving, multigenerational saga" is one that always piques my interest. At the start I quite liked this one, the writing was lovely and the idea of cleaning out the house and sifting through many artifacts and memories of the strong matriarchs in the family was intriguing. However, it begins to run dry, and I struggled to keep up with the many names and the overall focus of the story. This kind of story should have been something that I connected with and strongly, but I found that I just could not connect with it much at all. Sadly. It wasn't one that I wanted to reach for every chance I got and that unfortunately is a clear indication it just isn't working as well for me as I had hoped.
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June 16, 2020I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
This century-spanning family saga’s summary caught my attention with a description of 3 sisters organizing their grandmother’s possessions after her death “trying to decide what to salvage and what to toss.” (After performing these tasks at my own grandfather’s home last year I felt especially drawn to this topic.) An Elegant Woman is author Martha McPhee’s family history, including all the stories that have been passed down, leaving room for multiple revisions and embellishment through 4 generations of women. The 400 page book reads like a novel, but exists in that strange spot somewhere between non-fiction and fiction…creative non-fiction. I liked reading this but would tend to drift off thinking about my own family stories. I highlighted a lot of great lines throughout that were powerful not only in relation to the story but to me personally (controlling your own narrative, the vicious repetitions of motherhood, familial expectations, etc.) Readers who want a traditional story structure (beginning, middle, major event, climax, conclusion) may not like this, but if you enjoy individual family histories and are open to a more abstract story structure you should give it a shot.
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This century-spanning family saga’s summary caught my attention with a description of 3 sisters organizing their grandmother’s possessions after her death “trying to decide what to salvage and what to toss.” (After performing these tasks at my own grandfather’s home last year I felt especially drawn to this topic.) An Elegant Woman is author Martha McPhee’s family history, including all the stories that have been passed down, leaving room for multiple revisions and embellishment through 4 generations of women. The 400 page book reads like a novel, but exists in that strange spot somewhere between non-fiction and fiction…creative non-fiction. I liked reading this but would tend to drift off thinking about my own family stories. I highlighted a lot of great lines throughout that were powerful not only in relation to the story but to me personally (controlling your own narrative, the vicious repetitions of motherhood, familial expectations, etc.) Readers who want a traditional story structure (beginning, middle, major event, climax, conclusion) may not like this, but if you enjoy individual family histories and are open to a more abstract story structure you should give it a shot.
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July 11, 2020
I love a good multi-generational saga, so I was very excited to get an ARC of this book and even more pleased when it turned out to be a brilliant one.
I was immediately drawn in to this story: from the beginning, we know that Isadora’s ‘Grammy,’ variously known throughout the book as Thelma, Tommy, and Katherine, was quite the character, regaling her young granddaughters with incredible ancestry and rich family stories. The narrative skips around a lot, starting when we move from the granddaughters sorting through their late grandma’s things to Tommy as a 6-year-old child whose mother, Glenna, takes her two young daughters with her, leaving her husband in Ohio and heading west for a new life in 1910. Glenna is not a good mother, and leaves her very young children to be raised by others and then by themselves. Tommy cares for and raises her little sister, Katherine, and then makes her own way in the world.
There is an underlying theme of falseness throughout this story. Life is messy, and people tell lies and embellish. Even the most elegant woman has history and secrets. Tommy takes her sister’s name, her sister takes a different name, Glenna does what she pleases without much regard for her daughters, telling lies and leaving things out as she makes her way. Winter has her secrets, including a secret love, a difficult relationship with her mom, and a complicated family of her own. Isadora’s generation, with the help of a great uncle, try to piece their colorful family history together and separate the truth from the fantasy.
McPhee’s writing is gorgeous and vivid: the descriptions of the various settings are lushly detailed and the characters are well-drawn. So much intricate information is thrown at the reader, along with a cast of unique characters spanning over more than a century, and yet somehow the plot, timelines, and various narratives are easy to follow. Beyond that, the story is enthralling. I couldn’t stop reading once I got started. The only possible complaint I could have are that some stories end almost too soon—I was left wanting just a bit more time with some characters, but I suppose that’s how life is, with the inevitability of time.
Some of my favorite quotes come from near the end of the novel, and are about human life, death, and the histories of us:
“And just like that, a life is over—the urgencies, the fights, the stories, the sweet peas, the rattlesnakes, the attempts to make something of it, bend it and stretch it and configure it with our wills, give it a narrative, a history, a story, to make it amount to something.”
“Close your eyes. Imagine our historic moment, all that it entails. Imagine a thousand years from now what someone would write about it. Would it fill a sentence? A paragraph, at most? One sentence tells the history of us gathered here today, our lives now so rich in detail, filled with love and hate and joy and dramas. We, all of us, are reduced to a sentence, crushed and overpowered and hidden behind the flimsy weight of that sentence.”
An Elegant Woman is about women: mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, friends. It’s about complicated relationships and history and messy, real family; doing your own thing and still owning your piece of what came before you. I absolutely love the cover, and think it perfectly expresses the themes of the book.
Thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for my honest review.
I was immediately drawn in to this story: from the beginning, we know that Isadora’s ‘Grammy,’ variously known throughout the book as Thelma, Tommy, and Katherine, was quite the character, regaling her young granddaughters with incredible ancestry and rich family stories. The narrative skips around a lot, starting when we move from the granddaughters sorting through their late grandma’s things to Tommy as a 6-year-old child whose mother, Glenna, takes her two young daughters with her, leaving her husband in Ohio and heading west for a new life in 1910. Glenna is not a good mother, and leaves her very young children to be raised by others and then by themselves. Tommy cares for and raises her little sister, Katherine, and then makes her own way in the world.
There is an underlying theme of falseness throughout this story. Life is messy, and people tell lies and embellish. Even the most elegant woman has history and secrets. Tommy takes her sister’s name, her sister takes a different name, Glenna does what she pleases without much regard for her daughters, telling lies and leaving things out as she makes her way. Winter has her secrets, including a secret love, a difficult relationship with her mom, and a complicated family of her own. Isadora’s generation, with the help of a great uncle, try to piece their colorful family history together and separate the truth from the fantasy.
McPhee’s writing is gorgeous and vivid: the descriptions of the various settings are lushly detailed and the characters are well-drawn. So much intricate information is thrown at the reader, along with a cast of unique characters spanning over more than a century, and yet somehow the plot, timelines, and various narratives are easy to follow. Beyond that, the story is enthralling. I couldn’t stop reading once I got started. The only possible complaint I could have are that some stories end almost too soon—I was left wanting just a bit more time with some characters, but I suppose that’s how life is, with the inevitability of time.
Some of my favorite quotes come from near the end of the novel, and are about human life, death, and the histories of us:
“And just like that, a life is over—the urgencies, the fights, the stories, the sweet peas, the rattlesnakes, the attempts to make something of it, bend it and stretch it and configure it with our wills, give it a narrative, a history, a story, to make it amount to something.”
“Close your eyes. Imagine our historic moment, all that it entails. Imagine a thousand years from now what someone would write about it. Would it fill a sentence? A paragraph, at most? One sentence tells the history of us gathered here today, our lives now so rich in detail, filled with love and hate and joy and dramas. We, all of us, are reduced to a sentence, crushed and overpowered and hidden behind the flimsy weight of that sentence.”
An Elegant Woman is about women: mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, friends. It’s about complicated relationships and history and messy, real family; doing your own thing and still owning your piece of what came before you. I absolutely love the cover, and think it perfectly expresses the themes of the book.
Thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for my honest review.
June 19, 2020
"She noticed that the triptych was hinged, and she adjusted the panels, just slightly, until suddenly the mirrors were at such an angle to catch the image of herself in the gorgeous gown, a bride—an infinite number of brides—repeating into the distance. She touched one of the mirrors and a chain of linked brides seemed to bend off into a greenish, smiling endlessness, as if all of history converged upon a single moment, which it does, she thought, listening to the swish of fabric on the floor, before she moved again—and the moment moved too—and became part of the past." (325)
I chose this title because I liked the cover, and delighted upon the discovery of the above paragraph, about three-quarters of the way in. It is a gorgeous metaphor, and very fitting for the storyline. McPhee details several generations of women with keen insight, gentle aplomb, and (of course, as the title suggests, elegance).
2 stars rounded down from a low 3, because not only was I disappointed at the lack of diversity in the novel, I was frustrated with the lack of acknowledgment of that lack of diversity. Three- and five-year-old children who grew up in rural Ohio in 1910 might indeed be embarrassed or frightened by encounters with Black men on a train, but the interaction (or lack thereof) should be handled with sensitivity while still contextualizing.
The encounters these overwhelmingly white characters have—whether it be Glenna, Tommy, her daughters, or her daughter's daughters—with Black and brown individuals feel thrown-in, almost forced. Slavery and the Trail of Tears are mentioned as they might be in a textbook; footnoted, when more than likely, Glenna and her contemporaries would have witnessed these atrocities firsthand. Opportunities were lost by McPhee when she limited her sweeping opera to an all-Caucasian cast.
Even near the end of the novel, light-skinned Zasu (whose Black father and white mother raise eyebrows in the family) and her identity are sensationalized rather than celebrated. As McPhee writes in the voice of her narrator: "Sometimes I wondered if it would have been different for us had she [Zasu] been dark skinned, if we would have had to think more about her." Zasu never speaks for herself; she's footnoted as peripheral, rather than a person. McPhee implies that Zasu's biracial parentage makes her something of a scandal, and by limiting her narrator's comprehension of race to mere shades of pigmentation, the last-ditch attempt at diversification undermines itself. McPhee sees color, but can she contextualize it? Reveal its culture as she's spent nearly 400 pages developing her Caucasian narrator and the woman's "salt of the earth" ancestry?
"Salt of the earth," yes, is a phrase employed for their family, who came to the United States from Europe in boats (though not in chains) and went west, building their lives from scratch, claims McPhee, though the land never belonged to them to begin with.
As a final and altogether unrelated note, I cringed as a near-23-year-old at McPhee's last chapters, as she tried to draw younger generations to join the older, with...Snapchat. McPhee's weak analogy of the social media's "My Story" feature, compared to the idea of one's own story, one's history and biography, landed far off-target.
I chose this title because I liked the cover, and delighted upon the discovery of the above paragraph, about three-quarters of the way in. It is a gorgeous metaphor, and very fitting for the storyline. McPhee details several generations of women with keen insight, gentle aplomb, and (of course, as the title suggests, elegance).
2 stars rounded down from a low 3, because not only was I disappointed at the lack of diversity in the novel, I was frustrated with the lack of acknowledgment of that lack of diversity. Three- and five-year-old children who grew up in rural Ohio in 1910 might indeed be embarrassed or frightened by encounters with Black men on a train, but the interaction (or lack thereof) should be handled with sensitivity while still contextualizing.
The encounters these overwhelmingly white characters have—whether it be Glenna, Tommy, her daughters, or her daughter's daughters—with Black and brown individuals feel thrown-in, almost forced. Slavery and the Trail of Tears are mentioned as they might be in a textbook; footnoted, when more than likely, Glenna and her contemporaries would have witnessed these atrocities firsthand. Opportunities were lost by McPhee when she limited her sweeping opera to an all-Caucasian cast.
Even near the end of the novel, light-skinned Zasu (whose Black father and white mother raise eyebrows in the family) and her identity are sensationalized rather than celebrated. As McPhee writes in the voice of her narrator: "Sometimes I wondered if it would have been different for us had she [Zasu] been dark skinned, if we would have had to think more about her." Zasu never speaks for herself; she's footnoted as peripheral, rather than a person. McPhee implies that Zasu's biracial parentage makes her something of a scandal, and by limiting her narrator's comprehension of race to mere shades of pigmentation, the last-ditch attempt at diversification undermines itself. McPhee sees color, but can she contextualize it? Reveal its culture as she's spent nearly 400 pages developing her Caucasian narrator and the woman's "salt of the earth" ancestry?
"Salt of the earth," yes, is a phrase employed for their family, who came to the United States from Europe in boats (though not in chains) and went west, building their lives from scratch, claims McPhee, though the land never belonged to them to begin with.
As a final and altogether unrelated note, I cringed as a near-23-year-old at McPhee's last chapters, as she tried to draw younger generations to join the older, with...Snapchat. McPhee's weak analogy of the social media's "My Story" feature, compared to the idea of one's own story, one's history and biography, landed far off-target.
October 27, 2020
A lush tapestry of words and emotions about women in their lifetime who wove the fabric of their story
I related to the story telling as I had a relative who wove our family history with no one left living to dispute it and who also fiercely loved her family to a fault and championed the least of us. Very personal.
PS my husband’s family appeared in this story-his great grandparents OM and Josephine Edwards ! Such a lovely surprise!
I related to the story telling as I had a relative who wove our family history with no one left living to dispute it and who also fiercely loved her family to a fault and championed the least of us. Very personal.
PS my husband’s family appeared in this story-his great grandparents OM and Josephine Edwards ! Such a lovely surprise!
October 17, 2020
4.5 Stars.
This family saga is an interesting story of the strong women who were so much a part of American life in the Twentieth Century. The story centers on Tommy, AKA Katherine, the narrator's grandmother. But it's also about her great-grandmother and mother. There's striving, restlessness, and moving about that's so characteristic of the American character. The movement is from Ohio to Montana to California, Nevada, NYC, and New Jersey. Along the way, we discover new things about all of these places. Each character is richly imagined. I took about several things from this novel. One is that woman had to make some difficult and costly choices if they wanted to escape their constraints. The other is to examine whether there is truth in our family lore, and whether it actually matters. This is a carefully crafted novel that is both provocative and touching. The prose is absolutely gorgeous.
This family saga is an interesting story of the strong women who were so much a part of American life in the Twentieth Century. The story centers on Tommy, AKA Katherine, the narrator's grandmother. But it's also about her great-grandmother and mother. There's striving, restlessness, and moving about that's so characteristic of the American character. The movement is from Ohio to Montana to California, Nevada, NYC, and New Jersey. Along the way, we discover new things about all of these places. Each character is richly imagined. I took about several things from this novel. One is that woman had to make some difficult and costly choices if they wanted to escape their constraints. The other is to examine whether there is truth in our family lore, and whether it actually matters. This is a carefully crafted novel that is both provocative and touching. The prose is absolutely gorgeous.
May 31, 2020
I was hooked when the novelist narrator, one of the three sisters cleaning out their mother's basement, wonders if the story will be told by followers of the factual researcher Thucydides or the more novelistic Herodotus. Martha McPhee combines both styles in a novel that is riveting and infuriating at the same time.
Five year old Thelma (Tommy) and her younger sister Katherine are pulled from their cozy beds in the middle of a January night in 1910, and hauled to the train station by their mother, Glenna. She is leaving their father, and they are going to Montana where she will be a teacher. Before they even get on the train, Glenna asks some nuns to look after them and disappears into the club car for two days, not emerging even when the train is stopped by a blizzard. This will be a recurring theme, Glenna finding people to look after the girls and then vanishing for months or even years. She finally leaves them to fend for themselves in a room in Butte, adding that Tommy has had plenty of schooling and she can stay home and look after Katherine. The girls do find their own ways, and not how you think.
The character of Glenna is so difficult to get a grip on. When she's away from her children the hurt she's causing is hard to bear; when she's with the girls, we see that she is remarkable, a real heroine, a genius.
"An Elegant Woman" is not an easy book, but you will not be able to get enough. Still stuck in my head.
Five year old Thelma (Tommy) and her younger sister Katherine are pulled from their cozy beds in the middle of a January night in 1910, and hauled to the train station by their mother, Glenna. She is leaving their father, and they are going to Montana where she will be a teacher. Before they even get on the train, Glenna asks some nuns to look after them and disappears into the club car for two days, not emerging even when the train is stopped by a blizzard. This will be a recurring theme, Glenna finding people to look after the girls and then vanishing for months or even years. She finally leaves them to fend for themselves in a room in Butte, adding that Tommy has had plenty of schooling and she can stay home and look after Katherine. The girls do find their own ways, and not how you think.
The character of Glenna is so difficult to get a grip on. When she's away from her children the hurt she's causing is hard to bear; when she's with the girls, we see that she is remarkable, a real heroine, a genius.
"An Elegant Woman" is not an easy book, but you will not be able to get enough. Still stuck in my head.
November 25, 2020
I really wanted to like this book. I love historical fiction and I find family sagas particularly interesting. The book started out with promise, four sisters cleaning out their grandmother's house after her passing and find a lot of interesting things in her attic. My problem was that the story jumps around in time, a lot of information didn't really seem to enhance the narrative. The story seems to center on Grammy or also known as Thelma, Tommy or Katherine. I just couldn't follow all the characters and the flow of the story. At 16% I realized I was skimming and trying to find something I felt was relevant. Maybe in another time I would love this book but now isn't the time.
Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for providing me with a copy of this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for providing me with a copy of this book.
March 20, 2022
So this is the third book I’ve read in 2022 that I categorize as “narrative nonfiction masquerading as fiction.” Or maybe vice-versa. Anyway. Violeta was a bomb (and I’m a huge Allende fan so it kills me to say that); the Troubleseeker was better, but it couldn’t sustain itself; An Elegant Woman is by far the most successful. Still, while I thought the writing was spectacular, I found the book organized very strangely. Jumping all over in time in between the first person present narrator and the events of the past. There are a lot of characters to keep track of but their development was excellent. The writing sustained me through the convoluted storyline. I enjoyed reading this but it did take effort.
June 12, 2020
It took me a good 100 or more pages to get into this book. I had a hard time really enjoying a book about the lies these two women tell to make themselves feel important and to get ahead in life. Once I got further, and it became about the family in general, not just the first two generations, I liked it better.
did-not-finish
January 6, 2022DNF on page 74.
In another time, I would have finished this book out of obligation. My copy of An Elegant Woman was generously provided by the publisher and Goodreads. I had entered the giveaway because I enjoy historical fiction and family sagas where characters wrestle with their family's legacy; this book seemed comfortably within my interests. I'm grateful I had the chance to read and review this book, but it's 2020 and I want to focus on books that fully engage with the complicated world we live in.
The framing of the story is simple but effective: a grandmother has died, and her grandchildren are sorting through the forgotten relics in the basement of her house. These objects trigger memories of the grandmother's stories of the family's supposed connections to famous historical figures and of her journey out West and then back to the East Coast. This device works to introduce us to the current characters and our narrator, while also establishing who the past generations are and why they matter. The writing style is flowery and poetic, but doesn't flow naturally--it feels forced and exaggerated. But this style mimics the tone of the grandmother's insistence that they are descended from greatness and are therefore great themselves. I hope that the book goes on to challenge this belief and reconcile why the grandmother based the entire family's identity on this creed, but I did not see much effort to do so in the three full chapters I read. The lack of pushback against this way of thinking is what ultimately lost me.
The version of history presented in flashbacks to the grandmother's childhood is awkwardly whitewashed. The government was "giving away" land to "salt of the earth" people--namely people like the grandmother's family, descendants of European immigrants (with no explanation of where the government suddenly got this land). The characters rarely interact with anyone who is not white; Black porters on the train are avoided with a throwaway line about being told not to make eye contact with them. When the characters settle in Montana, the non-white population is handwaved away; the reader is told that the Chinese immigrants and the Crow people didn't mingle with the settlers. The way race is handled in the story seems like the author wanted to avoid the topic altogether. But there can be no truthful reckoning with a relative's character or a family's legacy without acknowledging the history and environment they lived in.
I get the impression that the author wanted to simplify the story to focus on the family of characters, but people do not exist in a vacuum. The story would have been better if framed so that the narrator presents the grandmother's version of events but then adds her own perspective with a more accurate acknowledgement of history. Refusing to fully unpack the family's history of claiming distant relations are significant figures of (white, European) history and how that ties into the white supremacy of American history reads as painfully tone deaf. A fuller picture of the world the character grew up in would have created a more vibrant story; as it is, the story feels anemic and disingenuous.
I would recommend The Vanishing Half and How Much of These Hills Is Gold for fans of historical fiction who want to explore family dynamics and the way generations interact with their history.
In another time, I would have finished this book out of obligation. My copy of An Elegant Woman was generously provided by the publisher and Goodreads. I had entered the giveaway because I enjoy historical fiction and family sagas where characters wrestle with their family's legacy; this book seemed comfortably within my interests. I'm grateful I had the chance to read and review this book, but it's 2020 and I want to focus on books that fully engage with the complicated world we live in.
The framing of the story is simple but effective: a grandmother has died, and her grandchildren are sorting through the forgotten relics in the basement of her house. These objects trigger memories of the grandmother's stories of the family's supposed connections to famous historical figures and of her journey out West and then back to the East Coast. This device works to introduce us to the current characters and our narrator, while also establishing who the past generations are and why they matter. The writing style is flowery and poetic, but doesn't flow naturally--it feels forced and exaggerated. But this style mimics the tone of the grandmother's insistence that they are descended from greatness and are therefore great themselves. I hope that the book goes on to challenge this belief and reconcile why the grandmother based the entire family's identity on this creed, but I did not see much effort to do so in the three full chapters I read. The lack of pushback against this way of thinking is what ultimately lost me.
The version of history presented in flashbacks to the grandmother's childhood is awkwardly whitewashed. The government was "giving away" land to "salt of the earth" people--namely people like the grandmother's family, descendants of European immigrants (with no explanation of where the government suddenly got this land). The characters rarely interact with anyone who is not white; Black porters on the train are avoided with a throwaway line about being told not to make eye contact with them. When the characters settle in Montana, the non-white population is handwaved away; the reader is told that the Chinese immigrants and the Crow people didn't mingle with the settlers. The way race is handled in the story seems like the author wanted to avoid the topic altogether. But there can be no truthful reckoning with a relative's character or a family's legacy without acknowledging the history and environment they lived in.
I get the impression that the author wanted to simplify the story to focus on the family of characters, but people do not exist in a vacuum. The story would have been better if framed so that the narrator presents the grandmother's version of events but then adds her own perspective with a more accurate acknowledgement of history. Refusing to fully unpack the family's history of claiming distant relations are significant figures of (white, European) history and how that ties into the white supremacy of American history reads as painfully tone deaf. A fuller picture of the world the character grew up in would have created a more vibrant story; as it is, the story feels anemic and disingenuous.
I would recommend The Vanishing Half and How Much of These Hills Is Gold for fans of historical fiction who want to explore family dynamics and the way generations interact with their history.
October 13, 2025
I love a book that draws me in and doesn't want me to put it down until I'm finished. A sprawling narrative of family and strong women covering multiple generations. I did have to double check who was who a few times as I read, but it never detracted from the loveliness of the story.
July 31, 2020
This story follows four generations of women, starting with the current time period. Isadora and her sisters are in their ailing mother's basement, discarding and keeping momentos. Isadora is only interested in her grandmother's little gray box, holding her grandmother's and great grandmother's lives contained through postcards, photos, notes and letters.
In the early 1900's Isadora's great grandmother Glenna, an outrageous, colorful, and independent woman, decides to leave her husband, and take her two young daughters out to Montana. One night she packs up the girls and leaves Ohio, aiming to better their lives at a time when people were heading west in search of homesteads.
Nature does as nature does and they end up living in a drought stricken Montana. Glenna was not what anyone would call a role model of parenting. In fact she abandons her two daughters at the railroad, and the girls, one being Isadora's grandmother, pretty much raise themselves, living in a shack, scrounging where they can. Glenna, more intent on lobbying for women's rights, drops in and out of their young lives.
"Tommy," Isadora's grandmother, takes care of her little sister, learning to hunt and does everything to help her little sister progress, be well dressed, and educated, at the expense of her own well being. As adults, this resentment boils over and Tommy makes a decision that has life long ramifications for both her and her sister's lives.
The novel delves into four generations right back up to our current era. All of the characters are detailed so that the reader sees each as a main focus. The reader won't quickly forget this creative, interesting American family.
The author is highly adept at pulling off this generational saga with detail and creativity. It is both historical and modern. Loved it!
In the early 1900's Isadora's great grandmother Glenna, an outrageous, colorful, and independent woman, decides to leave her husband, and take her two young daughters out to Montana. One night she packs up the girls and leaves Ohio, aiming to better their lives at a time when people were heading west in search of homesteads.
Nature does as nature does and they end up living in a drought stricken Montana. Glenna was not what anyone would call a role model of parenting. In fact she abandons her two daughters at the railroad, and the girls, one being Isadora's grandmother, pretty much raise themselves, living in a shack, scrounging where they can. Glenna, more intent on lobbying for women's rights, drops in and out of their young lives.
"Tommy," Isadora's grandmother, takes care of her little sister, learning to hunt and does everything to help her little sister progress, be well dressed, and educated, at the expense of her own well being. As adults, this resentment boils over and Tommy makes a decision that has life long ramifications for both her and her sister's lives.
The novel delves into four generations right back up to our current era. All of the characters are detailed so that the reader sees each as a main focus. The reader won't quickly forget this creative, interesting American family.
The author is highly adept at pulling off this generational saga with detail and creativity. It is both historical and modern. Loved it!
August 27, 2020
I won this book through Goodreads giveaways.
This was not a book for me. It had no connecting story to follow. It would often start with a story then jump to a memory from the past or something that was going to happen in the future then jump back to the story. I was not able to connect to the characters as there was no real depth to them, it seemed all very superficial. Which may have been the point because that is what an elegant woman would want, not having people really know details about them. There was too many people to remember how they all connect and something it was just easier to not try and figure out the connection and just move on.
I did like the concept of stories/memories being passed down through generations. I think it is nice and important to know where your family comes from, although most seemed like lies or exaggerations in this book.
This was not a book for me. It had no connecting story to follow. It would often start with a story then jump to a memory from the past or something that was going to happen in the future then jump back to the story. I was not able to connect to the characters as there was no real depth to them, it seemed all very superficial. Which may have been the point because that is what an elegant woman would want, not having people really know details about them. There was too many people to remember how they all connect and something it was just easier to not try and figure out the connection and just move on.
I did like the concept of stories/memories being passed down through generations. I think it is nice and important to know where your family comes from, although most seemed like lies or exaggerations in this book.
December 19, 2020
This one is difficult to sum up and almost impossible to review. Hard to get into (too much genealogy too soon), long, confusing, repetitive, overwrought. And yet... some great writing, characters, and storytelling, and illustrative of the ways family history can be enlightening, distorted, burdensome, and liberating.
August 17, 2022
This novel could have been an enthralling read for lovers of Americana, but the vagueness, the poetic voids and lapses led to confusion, irritation and my having to re-read paragraphs and at times entire pages. I was left with the impression that the author didn't have enough material to tell a cohesive story so she was forced to create a fairy tale.
June 27, 2020
I didn’t feel emotionally invested in this story or its characters. There were many characters but we didn't go deep enough into any of their stories for me to relate or empathize. Uneven, lacking a focus I was looking for in the narrative.
October 11, 2021
It wasn't a bad book but I didn't find it as powerful and moving as the blurb made me think I would be. Was unable to connect fully with the characters or story and therefore had a problem focusing on it. It was an okay book overall just not as good as I had hoped
August 11, 2021
4.5 stars
I have not yet read anything else by Martha McPhee so don't know if the writing style reflected in this book is how she always writes or not. To me, the style in which this novel is written seems to almost reflect the personalities of two of the central characters, Glenna and Tommy (or Thelma, or Katherine, depending on which name she is going by at the time). The style is precise and specific, slowly telling this story. The two women, mother Glenna and daughter Tommy, seem to order their lives, and the lives of those around them, with control, precision, and their own brand of reasoning. Perhaps it is a blending, in the style of writing with the characters begin created, that made this book compelling for me.
This story begins in 1910 and spans all the 20th century, and into the 21st. Tommy is only 5 years old when this story starts, and is in her late 90's when it ends. The author apparently used her own family history as a framework for this story, and has created complex characters with an engrossing story.
In 1910 Glenna takes her children, daughters Thelma (Tommy) age 5, and Katherine age 3, from their home in Ohio and their philandering father, to Montana to live in a mining town, where she hopes to find a job as a teacher. Even on the train ride to Montana, there were glimpses of the kind of neglectful parent Glenna was, or was becoming. In Montana Glenna first leaves her children with other caretakers for long months. But eventually she removes them from the care of anyone else and just leaves them to fend for themselves, not just a day here and there but for long months at a time, as she moves to other towns around Montana to teach other children. At the same time, when Glenna does spend time with her children she instills her expectations, that they are of the "finest stock", are descended from royalty, and will grow to be always proper young ladies; she creates a kind of fantasy aura around the two girls, and Tommy continues to believe those stories and fantasies for the rest of her long life, and to try to instill the same kind of "elegant" demeanor in her own children and grandchildren.
This is a story of two strong women who, despite their sometimes skewed views of reality, create their own lives, and have a lasting impact on the lives of others, through the generations.
I have not yet read anything else by Martha McPhee so don't know if the writing style reflected in this book is how she always writes or not. To me, the style in which this novel is written seems to almost reflect the personalities of two of the central characters, Glenna and Tommy (or Thelma, or Katherine, depending on which name she is going by at the time). The style is precise and specific, slowly telling this story. The two women, mother Glenna and daughter Tommy, seem to order their lives, and the lives of those around them, with control, precision, and their own brand of reasoning. Perhaps it is a blending, in the style of writing with the characters begin created, that made this book compelling for me.
This story begins in 1910 and spans all the 20th century, and into the 21st. Tommy is only 5 years old when this story starts, and is in her late 90's when it ends. The author apparently used her own family history as a framework for this story, and has created complex characters with an engrossing story.
In 1910 Glenna takes her children, daughters Thelma (Tommy) age 5, and Katherine age 3, from their home in Ohio and their philandering father, to Montana to live in a mining town, where she hopes to find a job as a teacher. Even on the train ride to Montana, there were glimpses of the kind of neglectful parent Glenna was, or was becoming. In Montana Glenna first leaves her children with other caretakers for long months. But eventually she removes them from the care of anyone else and just leaves them to fend for themselves, not just a day here and there but for long months at a time, as she moves to other towns around Montana to teach other children. At the same time, when Glenna does spend time with her children she instills her expectations, that they are of the "finest stock", are descended from royalty, and will grow to be always proper young ladies; she creates a kind of fantasy aura around the two girls, and Tommy continues to believe those stories and fantasies for the rest of her long life, and to try to instill the same kind of "elegant" demeanor in her own children and grandchildren.
This is a story of two strong women who, despite their sometimes skewed views of reality, create their own lives, and have a lasting impact on the lives of others, through the generations.
June 25, 2020
A sweeping look at motherhood and finding yourself in a novel that feels like a memoir. Set in 1910 in Ohio with no opportunities or clear path we find an independent thinking woman who, although tough as nails and enterprising, cannot list perfect mother to her resume. She packs up the family and shoves her two girls off to another family or at times leaves them to fend for themselves. Despite their mother's abandonment, Tommy and Katherine work hard to break free of the harsh Montana landscape. The sisters are all each other has until the day where they part and head off to opposite coasts. Tommy takes on Katherine's identity and becomes a nurse in New York while Katherine goes to California. It is the next two layers of the family tree that will come together at the end of their Grammy's life and find out how the family came to be. Beautifully written with lessons softly shared even in the most brutal moments. This is sure to appeal to readers of historical family sagas as well as those that appreciate a good tough western. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.
October 31, 2020
It’s a book within a book: Isadora is the family historian, taking after her grandmother, Thelma, otherwise known as Tommy. When Isadora’s own mother needs money for her care, the daughters decide to list their mother’s home and all of their grandmother Tommy’s assorted treasures for sale. Isadora finds documents and combining them with stories from her grandmother, weaves a tale about her grandmother’s fascinating life, beginning when her great-grandmother Glenna decided to move her girls to the wilds of Montana, leaving her cheating husband by himself. While Glenna is more consumed with her own passions and her own life, Tommy is stuck with raising herself and younger sister Katherine. The novel follows Tommy’s journey from 5 years old until beyond her death, culminating in a fascinating perspective on American history and culture in the 20th century. This is more than just a historical fiction novel or a novel about women’s lives. It’s a story about independence, about relationships between sisters, between mothers and daughters and the familial bonds between generations. I highly enjoyed this novel.
November 22, 2020
4.5 so many lush stories within stories. every family has them, this one more than most, perhaps. if you ever loved laura ingalls wilder books about homesteading and single room schoolhouses from a child's view, this book starts in montana with just that but from an entirely different child's view and it's a good one. you cannot help but fall in sync with young thelma/tommy and admire her 'gumption', be fascinated by her mother, her desire to take care of her beautiful younger sister and all that befalls and yes, they make of themselves. And indeed they do create themselves in this book of personal reinvention across generations.
I don't know whether some of the wondrous characters and interwoven narratives come from the author's own family archives or perhaps some people she 'knows', but the key protagonists' voices (tommy/thelma/kat + glenna) rings with authenticity and desire.
I also loved the subtext about how family narratives indeed all narratives are embellished and made more 'elegant' or 'interesting' or whatever characteristics become embedded in stories. In this book, there is a wonderful dissection in the form of a modern American road trip of one of these family stories - involving a dry dusty town, an undertaker, a weathered sign and some weather. Love!
I don't know whether some of the wondrous characters and interwoven narratives come from the author's own family archives or perhaps some people she 'knows', but the key protagonists' voices (tommy/thelma/kat + glenna) rings with authenticity and desire.
I also loved the subtext about how family narratives indeed all narratives are embellished and made more 'elegant' or 'interesting' or whatever characteristics become embedded in stories. In this book, there is a wonderful dissection in the form of a modern American road trip of one of these family stories - involving a dry dusty town, an undertaker, a weathered sign and some weather. Love!
April 28, 2020
36 // “And just like that, a life is over—the urgencies, the fights, the stories, the sweet peas, the rattlesnakes, the attempts to make something of it, bend it and stretch it and configure it with our wills, give it a narrative, a history, a story, to make it amount to something.”
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AN ELEGANT WOMAN is a multigenerational saga spanning the 20th century. more than just the stories and fables of the women in this family, the book explores what it means to dream of creating another life and desiring to be someone else, to work to press away the unwanted parts of your past and your story, and to discover if you’re ever able to escape who you really are. if you enjoyed the family saga aspect of PACHINKO, I think you’ll like this book, too. the story covered so much time and so many places, which made it a really interesting read on top of being beautifully written. 4/5 ⭐️—I liked it! Out June 2.
thank you to the publisher scribner for sending me a copy of this book!
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AN ELEGANT WOMAN is a multigenerational saga spanning the 20th century. more than just the stories and fables of the women in this family, the book explores what it means to dream of creating another life and desiring to be someone else, to work to press away the unwanted parts of your past and your story, and to discover if you’re ever able to escape who you really are. if you enjoyed the family saga aspect of PACHINKO, I think you’ll like this book, too. the story covered so much time and so many places, which made it a really interesting read on top of being beautifully written. 4/5 ⭐️—I liked it! Out June 2.
thank you to the publisher scribner for sending me a copy of this book!
September 11, 2020
I loved this book because it made me think. I actually took notes at the beginning because I was confused, but realized why later on and then it all made sense. I loved the complex (for me) vocabulary, the development of the characters, the history of the 20th century, the actual writing. As someone already stated, maybe the writing is better than the story? And as someone else said, it was "riveting and infuriating" at the same time! I want to talk about this book with somebody, but this book is not for every reader. Laura Ward, I need you to read this book and talk to me about it! Anybody else?
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