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This century-spanning family saga’s summary caught my attention with a description of 3 sisters organizing their grandmother’s possessions after her death “trying to decide what to salvage and what to toss.” (After performing these tasks at my own grandfather’s home last year I felt especially drawn to this topic.) An Elegant Woman is author Martha McPhee’s family history, including all the stories that have been passed down, leaving room for multiple revisions and embellishment through 4 generations of women. The 400 page book reads like a novel, but exists in that strange spot somewhere between non-fiction and fiction…creative non-fiction. I liked reading this but would tend to drift off thinking about my own family stories. I highlighted a lot of great lines throughout that were powerful not only in relation to the story but to me personally (controlling your own narrative, the vicious repetitions of motherhood, familial expectations, etc.) Readers who want a traditional story structure (beginning, middle, major event, climax, conclusion) may not like this, but if you enjoy individual family histories and are open to a more abstract story structure you should give it a shot.
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