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White Houses

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White Houses

By: Amy Bloom
Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
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Lorena Hickok meets Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on Franklin Roosevelt's first presidential campaign. Having grown up worse than poor in South Dakota and reinvented herself as the most prominent woman reporter in America, "Hick", as she's known to her friends and admirers, is not quite instantly charmed by the idealistic, patrician Eleanor. But then, as her connection with the future first lady deepens into intimacy, what begins as a powerful passion matures into a lasting love, and a life that Hick never expected to have.

She moves into the White House, where her status as "first friend" is an open secret, as are FDR's own lovers. After she takes a job in the Roosevelt administration, promoting and protecting both Roosevelts, she comes to know Franklin not only as a great president but as a complicated rival and an irresistible friend, capable of changing lives even after his death. Through it all, even as Hick's bond with Eleanor is tested by forces both extraordinary and common, and as she grows as a woman and a writer, she never loses sight of the love of her life.

From Washington, D.C. to Hyde Park, from a little white house on Long Island to an apartment on Manhattan's Washington Square, Amy Bloom's new novel moves elegantly through fascinating places and times, written in compelling prose and with emotional depth, wit, and acuity.©2018 Amy Bloom (P)2022 W. F. Howes Ltd Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Franklin D Roosevelt Roosevelt Family Biography
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The pressures of power and the need for relief. As they often say “it’s life Jim but not as we know it “

Passionate People

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I was disappointed, too many characters so easy to lose track . no real substance to the story

disappointed

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I wasn’t impressed at the opening, and was less so by the end due to the awkward, bumpy prose, an unconvincing central relationship, and repetitive conversation structure. Difficult to engage with the two main characters as they lack substance and believable detail. Some interesting historical references, but I struggled to stay with this to the end, and was relieved to finally get away from the slow-moving, navel-gazing narrative.

Disappointingly two-dimensional

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