Becoming Lady Washington
Despite its title, Becoming Lady Washington focuses on nearly the entirety of Martha Washington’s life, from her courtship by her first husband to her death at Mount Vernon. Martha is an attractive character whose determined nature manifests itself early on and whose strength bears her through war and a series of heartbreaking losses. Refreshingly, Bolté does not sugarcoat Martha’s less endearing traits, such as her unenlightened attitude toward her many slaves.
Unfortunately, I had some difficulties with this novel. Founding Fathers, Founding Mothers, relations, friends, retainers, and slaves parade through Martha’s first-person narrative, most of them largely indistinguishable from each other except for their different stations in life. Martha tells us whom she likes and whom she doesn’t like, and there’s little basis for us to agree or disagree. On several occasions, Bolté teases us with the promise of upcoming drama only to fall short. Much is made, for instance, of Martha’s forthcoming meeting with Sally Fairfax, supposedly a rival for George Washington’s affections, but after a sentence or two, Sally and Martha are the best of friends, and remain so. More irritatingly, the opening scene of the novel hints at some dastardly behavior of Thomas Jefferson toward the Washingtons, but Jefferson makes only a few appearances, none of them memorable or malevolent.
Becoming Lady Washington appears to have been well researched, and it does have its strong points, especially its account of Martha’s early life and of her love for George, which grows deeper as the spouses age. Those wanting to learn more about Martha could do far worse than to read this novel.
