Synopsis "An Elegant Woman"
&;A portrait of self-creation in the vein of F. Scott Fitzgerald&;,&; (The Wall Street Journal) An Elegant Woman is &;a rich exploration of legacy and memory&; (Entertainment Weekly) that follows four generations of women against the sweep of 20th century American history.Drawn from the author&;s own family history, this powerful, moving multigenerational saga from National Book Award finalist Martha McPhee masterfully explores the stories we tell ourselves, and what we leave out. 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 story 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. Told &;with an easy grace many historical novels lack&; (Los Angeles Times), An Elegant Woman follows one woman over the course of the 20th century, taking us from a drought-stricken Montana farm 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 &;sharp, precise, and, yes, elegant&; (The Boston Globe) in its gorgeous depiction of one hundred years in a family&;s history.
