Kirkus Review
English biographer Fraser (Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire, 2009, etc.) returns with a portrayal of the relationship of America's first couple. The author undertakes a daunting task with this book. George was famously reserved, always keeping his personal feelings under tight control, and Martha burned almost all the correspondence between George and herself before her death. For source material, Fraser had to look to correspondence to and between others and to documents such as invoices for furniture and clothing ordered from the business agents for the Washington family. The author has produced a joint biography that wisely avoids the thoroughly familiar ground of Washington's career as a general and president, except insofar as necessary to account for the couple's long absences from Mount Vernon. George's efforts to keep his plantations productive under the care of a series of overseers therefore take center stage, along with his difficulties raising Martha's children from her previous marriage, and then the grandchildren who lived with them. The less familiar Martha appears as a capable, strong-willed, affable, and utterly devoted spouse who buoyed her husband's spirits during the war by enduring long stretches with him in the army's winter quartersnot to mention the eight years spent "more like a state prisoner than anything else" in New York and Philadelphia as first lady. Fraser's prose flows well with the voices of her 18th-century subjects. However, the impression that emerges from the copious details of plantation management, children's tutoring, and relatives born and dying is of two busy lives on parallel courses; their devotion to each other is clearly evident, but so are several potential sources of sharp conflict between them. Fraser provides no sense of how these shoals were negotiated or how these formidable individuals actually got on with each other when they could be together. A difficult task crowned with mixed success. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Ron Chernow's magisterial Washington (Penguin, 2010) gave us an extremely well rounded portrait of our greatest national icon. A member of a highly regarded British family of biographers and historians now treats us to a more specific aspect of Washington's life in a fresh and highly informative view of Washington the husband. Along with Mary Todd Lincoln, Martha Washington is the most familiar of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century First Ladies, and Fraser's graceful, incisive portrait extends our knowledge of her. The author sees husband and wife as halves of a highly workable partnership that brought great emotional sustenance and security to them both. Martha was a wealthy widow when she married George, but any notion of opportunism on his part quickly dissolves in the face of Fraser's affirming depiction of Martha's unceasing care for George's well-being and his abiding interest in the welfare of her children and grandchildren from her previous marriage. The adage that says behind every strong man stands a strong woman is validated here.--Hooper, Brad Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THE PATIENT WILL SEE YOU NOW: The Future of Medicine Is in Your Hands, by Eric Topol. (Basic Books, $17.99.) Smartphones have created the potential to shift the power dynamic between people and their doctors, allowing patients to assert more agency and control over their health care. Soon, Topol predicts, phones could routinely aid in diagnoses; grant patients greater access to their medical records; and even perform some tests - ushering in a revolution in the field. SUBMISSION, by Michel Houellebecq. Translated by Lorin Stein. (Picador, $16.) It's 2022 in France, and an Islamic party has risen to power. François, a bored literature professor, is offered an irresistible deal: a position at a prestigious university and the chance to partake of the joys of polygamy. Houellebecq's morally complex novel follows an ambivalent society losing sight of its values. MARY McGRORY: The Trailblazing Columnist Who Stood Washington on Its Head, by John Norris. (Penguin, $18.) McGrory, a longtime Nixon foe, was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for commentary, for her work on the Watergate scandal; in addition, her columns eulogizing John F. Kennedy and excoriating the Vietnam War are enduring monuments. As McGrory herself put it: "I have always felt a little sorry for people who didn't work for newspapers." THE VEGETARIAN, by Han Kang. Translated by Deborah Smith. (Hogarth, $15.) Grisly nightmares drive Yeong-hye, an unhappy housewife in Seoul, to give up eating meat, inadvertently bringing yet more violence into her life. The ramifications of her decision, including violations of her body and mind, are explored in this novel from the perspectives of her husband, her older sister and her brother-in-law. BEYOND MEASURE: Rescuing an Overscheduled, Overtested, Underestimated Generation, by Vicki Abeles with Grace Rubenstein. (Simon & Schuster, $16.) Abeles takes aim at the standard of success in schools across the country, which too often results in students who are "enslaved to achievement." She outlines suggestions to improve educational culture and create conditions where children can thrive. FORTUNE SMILES: Stories, by Adam Johnson. (Random House, $16.) A cast of trapped narrators are the antiheroes of this collection; a man with pedophilic predilections and a former Stasi prison warden are among the characters of the book, which won the National Book Award for fiction in 2015. Johnson "is always perceptive and brave; his lines always sing and strut and sizzle and hush and wash and blaze over the reader," our reviewer, Lauren Groff, wrote. THE WASHINGTONS. George and Martha: Partners in Friendship and Love, by Flora Fraser. (Anchor, $17.95.) Fraser's biography of the couple - Martha, a wealthy widow, and George, a promising young soldier - follows them from marriage in 1759 to the White House, showing how each helped to shape the roles of presidential families to come.
Choice Review
Fraser cleverly invites readers to her book through the cover depiction of Edward Savage's The Washingtons, which, although painted from memory, touches all the worlds of America's first power couple, so "join'd by friendship, crown'd by love." Martha's physically demanding trips to winter camps and George's more tranquil nature in her presence reflect their devotion. The story testifies to the author's skills, given the privacy so treasured by George and Martha, the feelings imparted in their letters, plus their public personas as the country's first First Family. Fraser has mined the sources in reconstructing both the visible and invisible layers within the Washingtons' inner spaces. Some will carp at the author's skeletal documentation, but she has supported well all the story lines. Readers cannot help being drawn into this presidential fireside while hoping for more. One ironic subtext is that Martha's teeth remained attractive until late in her life, while long-suffering George never seemed happy with his jaw. Fraser splendidly humanizes this first couple while illustrating their closeness within their immediate, personal, political, and military families. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --James H. O'Donnell, Marietta College
Library Journal Review
After George Washington's death in 1799, his wife, Martha (1731-1802), burned most of their letters. Fraser (Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire) scoured journals and voluminous correspondence with family and friends as well as military, political, and business associates to reveal their story here. Woven into the background of their roles in the history of colonial Virginia, the American Revolution, and the first presidency are accounts of everyday household matters, family high points and heartaches, and estate management issues such as slave labor. An awkward and retiring farmer, George married the beautiful, wealthy widow and became a caring stepfather to her two young children. He grew calm and charming in her presence. Martha was a gracious and affable hostess in addition to being an able manager of her inheritance. Both were temperate and unassuming. Reluctantly serving as commander-in-chief during two increasingly challenging terms as president, George continuously balanced his control of troops and country with concern for Martha's well-being, attention to their extended family, and upkeep of their beloved Mount Vernon. VERDICT Without editorializing, Fraser presents a moving portrayal of the first couple's devoted relationship, their domestic concerns, and a valuable depiction of upper-class 18th-century life that will appeal to readers of popular history.-Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.