Review by Booklist Review
History frequently views famous marriages through the lens of the husband, leaving the wife hidden behind the cloak of domesticity. Their servitude is quietly credited for their husbands' successes while their own accomplishments are diminished to "wife of . . ." Ciuraru shines the spotlight on the wives of five literary marriages: Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall, Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia, Elaine Dundy and Kenneth Tynan, Elizabeth Jane Howard and Kingsley Amis, Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl. Each marriage examined is a roller coaster of romantic strife. Infidelity, addiction, jealousy, explosive fights, abuse, and competing careers cause festering infections in once-harmonious relationships. Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia survived the horrors of World War II together only for their marriage to dissolve in contempt. Roald Dahl and Kenneth Tynan resented Patricia Neal's and Elaine Dundy's professional successes. Kingsley Amis's dependence on Elizabeth Jane Howard stalled her own career. Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall's union endured but was tinged with betrayal. This book is an intriguing analysis of the relationship dynamics between creatives.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Critic Ciuraru (Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms) delivers a harrowing history of five mid-20th-century literary spouses. "If we think of literary wifedom as a narrative genre," Ciuraru writes, "it might be described as some blend of romance--turbulent, passionate, highly charged--and dystopian literature." There's Una Troubridge, whose marriage to Radclyffe Hall was marked by the former inhabiting "a subservient role with no trace of resentment or seething envy." (Indeed, with Troubridge the "submissive wife" and Hall the "controlling husband, they did not exactly defy patriarchal norms," Ciuraru notes.) Elsa Morante, meanwhile, was often "volatile" and made to feel "ignored, unwanted, taken for granted" by her husband Alberto Moravia; Kenneth Tynan sexually abused his second wife, Elaine Dundy, a writer whose "life was filled with fascinating characters, remarkable friendships, adventure, glamour, and literary success"; and while Elizabeth Jane Howard "always marveled" at husband Kingsley Amis's "intense discipline in his work," it often came at the expense of her own. Throughout, there are intense accounts of the writers psychologically (and sometimes physically) brutalizing their long-suffering partners; as Ciuraru puts it, "we must give writers' wives their due, marvel at what they achieved... and reflect on what might have been." This bracing survey delivers. Agent: William Morris, WME. (Feb.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Literary critic Ciuraru (Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms) examines five literary marriages--some fairy tales, some nightmares. Each couple (Elaine Dundy and Kenneth Tynan, Elizabeth Jane Howard and Kingsley Amis, Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl, Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia, Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall) gets a chapter that discusses their complicated relationships, often filled with excessive drinking/drugs, infidelities, clashes, and resentments. The author honors these women who performed many household and other tasks to support their "needy" literary spouses. In sustaining their writer-partners they often sacrificed their own careers and ambitions (Howard, Troubridge) and experienced intense envy and vitriol from their spouses when they attained their own literary success or fame (Dundy, Neal) that eclipsed their husbands'. She calls Morante the least selfless of the five wives; however, her husband's success often overshadowed her significant contributions to Italian literature. There are frequent quotes from letters and other sources but no footnotes and only a selected bibliography. The author also incorrectly states that Paul Newman won the Best Actor Oscar for Hud--he lost to Sidney Poitier. Of the featured marriages, only Troubridge and Hall's lesbian relationship endured. VERDICT A notable book about remarkable women that could have subsequent volumes. Recommended for readers interested in these authors or in 20th-century literature.--Erica Swenson Danowitz
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A series of eye-opening vignettes about the romantic and practical sacrifices five women made for their literary partners. Whether serving as muse, assistant, mother figure, antagonist, or lover--or some combination thereof--these women were crucial to the careers of their partners, but the road was often rocky, fraught with numerous challenges. In her latest book, Ciuraru, author of Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms, offers a rare window into five relationships--Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall, Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia, Elaine Dundy and Kenneth Tynan, Elizabeth Jane Howard and Kingsley Amis, and Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl--providing a respectful yet unflinching look inside the daily, often complicated lives of the writers and their wives. Once romantically entwined, the wives often had to shelve their own aspirations in order to nurture their partners, sometimes fighting like hell to keep their own identities. They often grappled with substance abuse, codependency, domestic violence, professional envy, and infidelity (Troubridge, Howard). "Modern marriage," writes Ciuraru, "is a series of compromises, a relentless juggling act of work obligations, childcare demands, household chores, money squabbles, hoarded grievances, simmering hostilities, and intimacy issues….Toss in male privilege, ruthless ambition, narcissism, misogyny, infidelity, alcoholism, and a mood disorder or two, and it's easy to understand why the marriages of so many famous writers have been stormy, short-lived, and mutually destructive." While none of the stories fade into the sunset with a neat, happily-ever-after conclusion, Ciuraru shows how some of these women thrived in their own careers later in life. "As has been true historically for many women artists and writers," she writes, "only a divorce or the death of a spouse liberated them to create and publish their best work--or any work at all." While the stories of betrayal and suffering might not exactly ruin literary heroes, readers beware: The reality is often harsh--but also fascinating. An illuminating, well-rendered literary biography. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
