Lucy - Softcover

Feldman, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393325105 ISBN 13: 9780393325102

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004

Synopsis

An utterly absorbing novel about a famous political marriage and an epic infidelity.

On the eve of World War I, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt, fiercely ambitious and still untouched by polio, falls in love with his wife's social secretary, Lucy Mercer. Eleanor stumbles on their letters and divorce is discussed, but honor and ambition win out. Franklin promises he will never see Lucy again.

But Franklin and Lucy do meet again, and again they fall in love. As he prepares to run for an unprecedented third term and lead America into war, Franklin turns to Lucy for the warmth and unconditional approval Eleanor is unable to give.

Ellen Feldman brings a novelist's insight to bear on the connection of these three compelling characters. Franklin and Lucy did finally meet, across the divide of his illness and political ascendancy, her marriage and widowhood. They fell in love again. As he prepared to run for an unprecedented third term and lead America into war, Franklin turned to Lucy for the warmth and unconditional approval Eleanor was unable to give.

Drawing on recently discovered materials to re-create the voice of a woman who played a crucial but silent role in the Roosevelt presidency, Lucy is a remarkably sensitive exploration of the private lives behind a public marriage. Reading group guide included.

About this title

About the Author

Ellen Feldman is the author of the novels Lucy and The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank. She writes for the American Heritage Web site and is a sought-after speaker. She lives in New York.

From Booklist

Feldman humanizes two icons and sheds light on an enigmatic figure of history in this novel detailing the love affair between Franklin Roosevelt and his wife's secretary, Lucy Mercer Rutherford. Told from Rutherford's viewpoint, the story traces their affair from when she is initially hired as Eleanor's personal secretary in the days before World War I and ends on Rutherford's deathbed in 1948. The affair, which terminates when his advisors fear that his wished-for divorce could ruin his presidential aspirations, is renewed 20 years later during FDR's presidency, when he seeks Lucy's companionship to relieve the stresses of World War II. With Lucy, Rutherford has created a Whartonesque heroine: an intelligent and perceptive woman stymied by the social restrictions of her time. Eleanor serves as a peripheral character, emerging as a woman driven by her convictions and her need to right the unending wrongs of the world, while Roosevelt is a charismatic figure who is unsure of why any obstacle--social mores, political opponents, or polio--should impede his desires. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0393325105
• ISBN 13: 9780393325102
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 306