An elegant woman : a novel

Title:

Author:

McPhee, Martha, author.

Personal Author:

McPhee, Martha, author.

ISBN:

9781501179570

9781501179587

Edition:

First Scribner hardcover edition.

Physical Description:

405 pages ; 22 cm

Abstract:

"On a winter day in 1910, at a train station in Ohio, two girls wait in the cold with their mother to begin a new life in the West. Tommy, the eldest, feels responsible for her sister, and in the years to come, as their mother campaigns for women's suffrage and teaches in one-room schoolhouses across Montana, she takes care of Katherine: trapping animals, begging, keeping house, cooking, while her sister goes to school. But as soon as Katherine graduates, Tommy makes a decision that will change the course of both of their lives--separating the two sisters forever, sending one to California and the other to New York. A profound meditation on memory, history, and legacy, ten years in the writing, 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. Through betrayals, revelations, separations, and reunions, the story illuminates the complexities of class, race, feminism, and family, the sacrifices and compromises that go into making a life."-- Provided by publisher.

Subject Term:

Sisters -- Fiction.

Mothers and daughters -- Fiction.

Families -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

United States -- History -- 20th century -- Fiction.

United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century -- Fiction.

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Domestic fiction.

Social problem fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... West End	Book	FICTION MCPHEE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

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.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A family's myths become a treasured legacy. "How is a person made?" the young Katherine Stewart asks her older sister, Tommy. "I mean a life," she adds, "growing up, understanding who you are and what you want. How does that happen?" That is the essential, vexing question that pervades McPhee's thoughtful, gently told novel about the ways a family's past shapes each generation. Tommy's granddaughter Isadora finds the stories irresistible: A writer, she bases her novels on biographies of real people, just as McPhee has done here, drawing on her own family history. Central to the novel are Tommy and Katherine, cowed by poverty, neglected by their impetuous mother, Glenna, and longing to escape a circumscribed life. Throughout their childhood, they find themselves "elaborating and embellishing" colorful family fables, handed down by Glenna, until both felt that they "had lived not only their brief lives, but also in memories that began long before they were born." Their own lives change dramatically in 1910 when Glenna leaves her adulterous husband, taking her daughters from their home in Ohio to Montana, where she cajoles and flirts her way into being hired as a teacher--pretending to be single, soon foisting her girls on a kindhearted childless couple. She returns after 2 years, sweeping up her daughters once again to accompany her as she continually reinvents herself. As the sisters grow up, they confront the question Katherine asked as a child: how to know who you are. McPhee underscores her characters' evolving identities by playing with names: Tommy was born Thelma; Katherine calls herself Kate and, later, Pat; and these names, too, change--sometimes confusingly--as the narrative spins out and each sister grapples, more or less successfully, with the possibility of self-creation. "Sometimes it feels good to pretend," Tommy reflects, "to be the person you desire, to believe you can have what you please, that what you say is the truth." Delicately rendered characters inform a richly textured family portrait. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.