Mills and boon lynne graham

Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley

Hazel Rowley is well-regarded as a biographer, and the Roosevelts were interesting people whose lives were internationally significant. Her focus in this book is not on their public lives, however, but more the relationship between the two lead characters, Eleanor and Franklin, and their close relationships with others. These were no doubt scandalous at the time, and would still be seen as scandalous in the hypocritical miasma surrounding modern political life. I didnt find them particularly interesting.

I was more interested in learning some of the dynamics of the Roosevelt governments during the Depression and WWII. Rowley has drawn extensively on diaries and personal correspondence to reveal details of domestic life and sources of tension within the Roosevelt household. She has written anecdotally, rather than analytically, in a fairly flat prose style.
I felt early on that the book should be more engaging than it is, and thats how I feel now that Ive finished it.
Its up for discussion at the next book club meeting, will be interesting to see what others think.