“I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”
I was familiar with one of Teddy Roosevelt’s more memorable
lines, as well as his own back story (death of his wife and mother on the same day,
subsequent abandonment of his two-day-old baby, followed by remarriage to a
woman who wasn’t exactly crazy about her rambunctious step-daughter, and even
Alice’s Pacific tour), but American Princess provides a far more
in-depth look at Alice Roosevelt, from her days living in the White House to her
days visiting it during the Kennedy years.
This is historical fiction at its finest, with the
characters finely drawn from letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, interviews,
and other source materials that allowed Stephanie Marie Thornton to create a detailed portrait of
the life, loves, and legacy of Alice Roosevelt Longworth. (For what it’s worth,
I previously knew about the womanizing husband, but not Aurora Borah Alice.)
Thornton's work is fast-paced and lively, not unlike Roosevelt Longworth herself, it seems, and she manages to imbue all of the characters with a complexity that is undoubtedly true-to-life. (Case in point, I found Teddy himself much more sympathetic in this work than in any previous book I've read about him.) American Princess is beautifully written, and the scandals and hijinx are as readable as any tabloid, while being the heart and soul of a work with a true literary feel. This is historical fiction, but - and I mean this is all the best ways - it's sometimes difficult to discern where the truth stops and the fiction begins.
Five stars.
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