Born into upper-class America in the same year, 1854, Sara Delano (later to become the mother of Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Jennie Jerome (later to become the mother of Winston Churchill) refused to settle into predictable, sheltered lives as little-known wives to prominent men. Instead, both women concentrated much of their energies on enabling their sons to reach the epicenter of political power on two continents. In the mid-19th century, the British Empire was at its height, France's Second Empire flourished, and the industrial vigor of the United States of America was catapulting the republic towards the Gilded Age. Sara and Jennie, raised with privilege but subject to the constraints of women's roles at the time, learned how to take control of their destinies—Sara in the prosperous Hudson Valley, and Jennie in the glittering world of Imperial London.
The social-justice smugness...does not seem to bode well for what will follow. And indeed, a few pages later...Ms. Gray introduces slavery as if readers have never heard of it ... And then suddenly, mercifully, the scolding ends ... Gray persuasively argues that the mothers were crucial in shaping the habits and actions of their sons ... Gray’s sensitivity to the shifting and sometimes unkind judgments of history makes even stranger her inclusion of the contemporary grievances that appear at the start of the book ... It would be a shame if readers were to be put off by the faddishness and miss what is otherwise a terrific and insightful double biography. Stick with it past page 53.
Frank and lively ... An ingeniously conceived and elegantly executed dual portrait of Jennie Churchill and Sara Roosevelt ... Gray’s clever biographical construct has its limitations. There is no record of the two women ever meeting ... Happily, Gray makes little attempt to write around these problems, instead letting each woman be the central character in her own distinct drama.
Gray’s impeccable research and insightful look into social constraints of the time bring these women to life, highlighting the often-overlooked ways Jennie and Sara shaped not only their own destinies but those of their sons. Perfect for literary nonfiction, history, women’s-history, and biography readers.
