Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp

Written by Michelle Moran
Review by J. Lynn Else

It’s the 1950s, and your life’s about to be made into a musical by the Tony Award-winning team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It will turn out to be one of the most successful musicals of all time, be adapted to film, and become beloved worldwide… but it’s actually a lie. Your husband is portrayed as controlling and humorless, your children’s names and genders have been changed or simply omitted, and the person responsible for your family’s professional success is absent. Even your daring escape “over the mountains” is geographically impossible. But you’ve sold the story rights away, so what can you do? Well, a letter to Mr. Hammerstein, himself, is one place to start!

The narration alternates between Maria’s life and that of Hammerstein’s fictional secretary, Fran (plus a third surprising and rewarding point of view). Fearing bad press if Maria’s objections are made public, Fran is sent to listen to Maria’s concerns. She quickly empathizes with the matriarch while searching for her own purpose. Moran elegantly balances the women’s times and places. Fran’s story isn’t as developed as Maria’s, but it works for this book.

Maria dives into the complex reality of the von Trapp family and serves to illuminate the realities of truth versus perception. The real-life Maria lived in a time when the world had overwritten her story. In truth, marred by abuse and loss, her life was a far cry from the woman Julie Andrews portrayed. The difficult moments aren’t glossed over in this heartfelt and honest depiction. Maria’s world was messy, but through it all, readers will see a life defined by her love of family and of music. Maria fits comfortably within Moran’s exquisite catalog in which the realities of women’s nuanced roles in history, women who made difficult choices in difficult times, are illustriously personified under the author’s deft pen.