The President’s Wife
In 1915, Edith Galt, a wealthy widow living in Washington, DC, is introduced to Helen Bones, a cousin to President Woodrow Wilson, who is new in town and in need of female company. When Helen takes her new friend to the White House, the two run into the recently widowed President—an encounter that will transform the independent-minded Edith’s life.
Tracey Enerson Wood appears to know her subject very well, and I especially appreciated her refusal to make her characters more palatable to modern readers by whitewashing their views on matters such as race and suffrage. But the pivotal episode in the novel—centering around Edith’s actions as “shadow president” when Wilson suffers a stroke in 1919—comes very late in the narrative and is given short shrift, especially when compared to the more than ample time allotted to the couple’s courtship. Because of that, it is difficult to believe in Edith’s later self-doubt and regrets. Indeed, Edith’s character feels undeveloped, so that it is difficult to fully engage with her. When we meet her, she’s already achieved the task of turning her late husband’s failing business into a thriving concern, but we learn little of how she managed this. Similarly, while a few minor characters stand out, such as the President’s physician and Edith’s acerbic mother, for the most part the supporting characters, including the ones we are supposed to regard as villains, are a blur. Still, this novel offers some interesting glimpses into wartime Washington, and it’s good to see a neglected First Lady getting her turn in the spotlight.
