An Elegant Woman: A NovelFor 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. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - Beamis12 - LibraryThing3. 5 The year is 1910 and Montana is calling for workers, new opportunities to those who take up the challenge. Glenna, leaves her husband and takes her two young daughters, to the new land where she ... Read full review
An Elegant Woman
User Review - Publishers WeeklyIn McPhee’s ambitious if uneven latest, a novelist recounts the twists and turns of her grandmother’s life. While Isadora helps her sisters and mother clean out her grandmother’s house in New Jersey ... Read full review
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Common terms and phrases
arrived asked Aunt baby beautiful believe beneath body Brown called carried Charles coming course dark daughter dead didn’t door dress everything eyes face fact father fear feel felt followed gave girls Glenna gone Grammy Grammy’s hair hand hard head heard held imagined inside Katherine keep kind knew leave letters light lives looked loved mind mother moved Nancy never night nurse offered once Pete play pulled seemed she’d shoes side sister Slim smile Sometimes speaking spoke standing stood stopped stories street studied tell Thelma things thought Timothy told Tommy Tommy’s took town train trunk truth turned understood waiting wanted watched window Winter woman women wore York Zasu
Bibliographic information
| Title | An Elegant Woman: A Novel |
| Author | Martha McPhee |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster, 2020 |
| ISBN | 1501179594, 9781501179594 |
| Length | 416 pages |
| Subjects | › › Fiction / Historical / General Fiction / Literary Fiction / Women |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |