An Elegant Woman

An Elegant Woman by Martha McPhee

Have you ever thought about the decisions you’ve made during your life that ended up being profoundly important decisions? In An Elegant Woman Martha McPhee gives us four generations of women whose decisions tracked a century, their lives and changed their course.

In 1910 Glenna leaves her husband with his new and current girlfriend, takes her two daughters, Katherine and Thelma (called Tommy) to the train and heads West. Now, this is where we start to judge Glenna. Not for leaving her husband, who wouldn’t? But for leaving her little girls aged 3 and 5 with a few traveling nuns on the train at a stop. Glenna doesn’t know the nuns, the nuns don’t know Glenna nor the children but they watch over them, feed them, keep them warm while Tommy tries to figure out this new development but realizes also at that point they can’t depend on Glenna that she is in charge of Katherine. She just doesn’t realize yet this is forever.

The family is headed West to Montana where Glenna is sure she can get a job teaching because there are miners there, there are women there and so there will be children who need to be taught there. Reunited with her girls at the end of the train ride, Glenna finds a job and once again, leaves the girls while she teaches in frontier one room schools throughout the state and campaigns for women’s right to vote. The girls are lucky to be left with people who love and care for them but are once again wisked away when Glenna is ready to move on.

Always, Tommy is in charge of Katherine’s care. By now, she’s learned to shoot, ride, trap, trade and feed themselves. As the girls grow it becomes clear who is going to move on and who is going to be the one who doesn’t. Tommy works (remember she’s a child) and protects. When Katherine graduates from high school and makes a decision for her future Tommy makes a decision that upends both of their lives.

All through this story you feel sorry for the girls, you don’t like Glenna much, ever, and you don’t blame Tommy one bit. At least I didn’t. The author gives us the stories these women gave themselves for all of their lives, and we all know that our stories are tempered with perspective. How does the same story change with the way someone perceived it?

I thought all through this book of how our stories change as we tell them over and over, and how each person who experienced the very same event sees that event through different eyes.It cetrainly opened mine.