Both Eleanor and Hickok desire to escape into their secret world, but they are plagued by gossip, and despite brief stints at other properties, Eleanor always returns to the White House and to her role as First Lady. It is also about civic duty and navigating social pressure. I held my breath for a few seconds to encourage a heart attack.”Īnd yet, the book is more complicated than a simple love story. We would start believing in God, I thought, just as we died. The language gushes with vivid imagery and lyricism: “I thought that if we both died, right then, under the enormous green hands of the maple leaves, we would be delighted. The moments matter more than any plot line it seems, and yet, there is tension: They are together for a time, and things are perfect, or they are together and things are not perfect, or Hickok needs a place to live, and Eleanor offers her a room in the White House despite Lorena having another lover.
The novel is told in moments where love and happiness are alive and palpable (drinking tea, talking, and making love) and in nostalgia or anticipation of such moments. The theme of social and cultural expectations and transgressions thread through the story as Hickok realizes Eleanor will never leave her husband despite his blatant affairs and her love for Hick: “It was a promise to leave everything else behind, even if it was only for the length of the whispered call, for three minutes stolen from the state dinner.” Told in chapters not arranged chronologically, that safe harbor for Hickok is from a childhood where she had to raise herself, and for Eleanor is from a too-public life supporting her husband. The novel, told from Hickok’s point of view, is luscious in its depiction of love as safe harbor from a harsh world.
Although historians acknowledge the two women exchanged letters and were openly affectionate, whether they had a physical relationship is still debated. “Hick” was known as a lesbian and she was also known to say she was in love with Eleanor.
Roosevelt's presidential campaign and then developed a close relationship with Eleanor. In White Houses (Random House), celebrated writer Amy Bloom imagines the relationship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok, the journalist who covered Franklin D.
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