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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
An Elegant Woman by Martha McPhee
5.0
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.