Imagine being so adored that you can’t go anywhere, think Princess Diana times two. Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight in 1927 across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis made him a hero, forever changing his life. But the world’s idolization had a cost to him and his family. Scrutinized at every level, the Lindberghs were revered at times and maligned at others. Melanie Benjamin’s novel “The Aviator’s Wife,” offers a chance to look inside the fishbowl of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s life.
The novel begins with Charles Lindbergh’s last flight home to Maui. He is dying and wants to be buried at their Hawaiian home. Anne, his wife of 45 years, looks back over their relationship trying to find some comfort and understanding. Why Charles? Why?
Anne grieves, loves, shoulders the weight of her family and navigates the best she can in a male-dominated world. Lindbergh was a total control freak! Anne did everything she could to appease him. Almost sounds like an old country western song, and in a way maybe it was. The oddness of the relationship began from the first date with his coolness and calculation and her utter amazement that someone like him would even look at her. Throughout the story, Ann struggled with her self-esteem never thinking much of herself. Her initial detachment from their first-born child, Charley, in his first few months of his life was painful to read knowing that he would be kidnapped and die so young. Anne’s guilt was palpable, and she refocused her attention away from Lindbergh and to her
children as her family grew.
Lindbergh who always seemed to be searching for some adventure began traveling for work without Anne who tended to the house and children. Each year he seemed to be gone longer and longer finally ending up away from home most of the time. Once the children left to begin their own lives, Anne rarely saw him. She couldn’t even get in touch with him except through his employer. She wanted to sell their home in Darian, it was too big for her. But Charles, always the manipulator, insisted Anne keep the house.
“It’s precisely because you’re here,” Charles continued, murmuring, low and throaty like a perfectly tuned engine, “and that you’ve always been here, running things, keeping us all going – that I can do the work I need to. I couldn’t accomplish half so much without you, Anne. I thought you knew that. You’re my crew.”
Ugh!
My book club didn’t much care for Charles Lindbergh, nor would we for any man that acted the way he did. And at times, Anne’s whininess about her situation was irritating, but it’s hard to judge when are societal norms are so different. I just wanted her to slap his face!
Our book club liked this book a lot. We had read Melanie Benjamin’s “The Swans of Fifth Avenue,” and wanted to read another of her novels. We talked about how much women’s lives have changed over the last 100 years and about living under a microscope. How do all the reality stars really handle the scrutiny? Boy, that money must be good!
Book clubs will definitely enjoy this book.
Rating: 8.5