"Unknown First Ladies Speak From The Heart!"

Lucy Hayes, the fifteenth First Lady of the United States or the wife of President Rutherford Hayes, has decided to gift the older "nonentities" of the First Ladies by giving them the opportunity (albeit fictional) to comment on their roles according to the standard of their times, not our times. Many of these notable women were friends, enemies, and somewhere in between the two extremes. But all know the history of their time, all have the ability to express their true opinions, and all have the ability to respond to the historical record - whether realistic or revisionary interpretation.

And so, beginning with the self-described "willful" Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and ending with the innocent but victimized (by rumors) Mamie Doud Eisenhower, these ladies tell the reader what it was like to be political wives who were expected to be nonpolitical, beautiful, and an asset to the social and usually religious norms of each particular historical period. Entwined around their comments are those of our modern First Ladies, ranging with honest appraisal, disagreement, and sometimes downright cattiness. Many loved basking in their husband's glory and many deplored every second they had to spend in a Washington capital that was far from the clean, noble city and political hothouse that we now know in America. Far too many suffer grievously over the loss of one or more children, dead in their medically limited and pestilence- ridden society that wiped out multiple generations of the less-than-hardy.

They laugh, weep, worry, delight in, and even deplore the world of politics; indeed they pour their minds and hearts onto these pages, some repetitively mundane and others relishing the newly found power and influence their closeness to the President automatically implied. While there is nothing overly astonishing within these pages, they do open to the common reader a world apart from the politically correct memoirs that have become expected in our lives. This collection is a novel addition to America's history, one that contemporary First Ladies and common citizens might contemplate for the honesty, truth, and wisdom shared by these indomitable women who shared the forging of this great nation. An interesting and unique set of memories, these ladies' conjectures fuel the reader's curiosity and desire into a vicarious journey through the halls of America's historical fame.

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal
Courtesy Crystal Reviews
Posted October 3, 2003