Madame Presidentess is the story of Victoria Woodhull, who ran for president of the United States on the Equal Rights Party ticket nearly fifty years before she had the right to vote. She was largely either demonized or ignored in the history of the 1870's portion of the history of women's suffrage, probably because her support of free love made her a controversial figure even among her natural allies re: the right to vote. (There was actually a musical based on her life that ran for exactly one performance on Broadway in 1980, and as far as I can tell, deservedly so.)
The afterward describes this book as being heavy on the historical side of historical fiction, and I'd agree with that assessment, although I'm not sure I mean that in the same sense the author does. I think the author means that not much was invented, aside from creating some composite characters here and deciding to handle two people with similar names who might actually have been the same person as different members of the same family there. What I'd add to that, although I'm not sure this is what she was getting at, is that I don't feel like we got much more of Woodhull than we would in a museum exhibit, or a YA biography. I mean, the couple of sex scenes probably wouldn't have been in a YA biography, but I don't want to just say "a biography" because most biographies aimed at adult audiences that I encounter - and admittedly those are usually ones that have gotten a starred review in some journal that led somebody to suggesting it for the Notable Books List- contain more in the way of analysis of their subjects. Madame Presidentess gets the story across, and it's a fascinating story, but neither Woodhull nor anybody around her is particularly developed as a character. I found it a worthwhile read because I like reading about her, and I'd recommend it to anybody who just wanted her story, but just because it's an amazing story doesn't necessarily make it much of a novel.
Overall: C
The afterward describes this book as being heavy on the historical side of historical fiction, and I'd agree with that assessment, although I'm not sure I mean that in the same sense the author does. I think the author means that not much was invented, aside from creating some composite characters here and deciding to handle two people with similar names who might actually have been the same person as different members of the same family there. What I'd add to that, although I'm not sure this is what she was getting at, is that I don't feel like we got much more of Woodhull than we would in a museum exhibit, or a YA biography. I mean, the couple of sex scenes probably wouldn't have been in a YA biography, but I don't want to just say "a biography" because most biographies aimed at adult audiences that I encounter - and admittedly those are usually ones that have gotten a starred review in some journal that led somebody to suggesting it for the Notable Books List- contain more in the way of analysis of their subjects. Madame Presidentess gets the story across, and it's a fascinating story, but neither Woodhull nor anybody around her is particularly developed as a character. I found it a worthwhile read because I like reading about her, and I'd recommend it to anybody who just wanted her story, but just because it's an amazing story doesn't necessarily make it much of a novel.
Overall: C
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