The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
This is an absolutely terrific novel. If you want to know more about the 20th century, it’s all here, from the founding of the Post Cereal Company to the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson, and if you want to be inspired by a brilliant, generous, and powerful woman, then Marjorie Post will fill the bill.
The book begins at the turn of the century when a sickly C. W. Post and his family travel to Battle Creek, Michigan, to find a cure at Dr. Kellogg’s sanitarium. C. W. manages to regain his health in Battle Creek, but he also discovers a source of wealth in the idea of a tasty, grain-based breakfast. His daughter, Marjorie, learns valuable life lessons from her father, and when he dies while she is still a young woman, she uses those lessons to further enrich herself but also to enrich the lives of others. Marjorie enjoys her money, creating monumental estates such as Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach and Hillwood Home in D.C., but she also believes that with great wealth comes great responsibility. During the Great War, she founds a hospital for soldiers in France. In the Great Depression, she becomes known as “Lady Bountiful” for the canteens she establishes to give out free food and clothing. Finally, when she dies, she leaves most of her treasures to the public for their enjoyment.
Pataki manages to make every chapter in this long and complicated life fascinating. Marjorie’s love life is as enthralling as it is heartbreaking. Her four successive husbands are unequal to the task of truly loving a woman of such wealth and power. She never admits defeat, however, and ultimately embodies the ideal of a true American hero.
