Landscape of a Marriage
By Gail Ward Olmsted
A marriage of convenience leads to a life of passion and purpose. A shared vision transforms the American landscape forever.
New York, 1858: Mary, a young widow with three children, agrees to marry her brother-in-law Frederick Law Olmsted, who is acting on his late brother’s deathbed plea to "not let Mary suffer”. But she craves more than a marriage of convenience and sets out to win her husband’s love. Beginning with Central Park in New York City, Mary joins Fred on his quest to create a 'beating green heart' in the center of every urban space.
Over the next 40 years, Fred is inspired to create dozens of city parks, private estates and public spaces with Mary at his side. Based upon real people and true events, this is the story of Mary’s journey and personal growth and the challenges inherent in loving a brilliant and ambitious man.
Mary Olmsted isn’t in the greatest of positions when she travels back to America and asks her brother-in-law, Fred, for help. Her husband has passed away from tuberculosis, leaving her alone with three young children and nowhere to live. When she meets with Fred, though, all her issues seem to dissolve. Fred sets her up in a house, and provides her with his company and, slowly, feelings appear.
Marrying Fred would seem a logical choice, yet Mary does not want to marry just to ensure a roof over her head. She wants to feel love, and she wants Fred to feel love for her in return. Their marriage may have begun with new feelings, waiting to be explored, but it grows into a relationship of love and adoration.
This book follows the life of a woman whose entire existence has been overshadowed by her husband. Fred designed parks, including the all famous Central Park, and in history, his name is remembered. Not much was known about his wife, though. Reading this book, it seemed that Fred was more devoted to his work than to his family and spent long hours working and not much time at home relaxing with his wife and children. His hard work obviously paid off, but what did that mean for Mary? The author has achieved what was set out to be achieved in this book, for it brings to life a woman whose life doesn’t deserve to be forgotten.
This book is written in very short chapters, which almost zero in on the points in Mary and Fred’s marriage when there was an event, or there is some record of something happening. This made me feel a little disconnected from the story at times, as you never get an in-depth moment with the characters. Instead, something will happen and you move on very quickly, without seeing any long-term effects or fully understanding how the characters feel about the event. I get that this book aimed to tell the entire period of Mary’s marriage, but it is a lot to put into just one book, and I think it would almost be impossible to write about such a long period of time without skipping over the details. That being said, if this book focused on perhaps one section of Mary’s marriage, or if the story was spread out over a series, a lot more detail could have been added and I could have connected with the characters more.
I enjoyed reading this book and learning about the lives of Mary and Fred two people I had admittedly never heard of before, but I wish I could have delved deeper into their lives without being instantly dragged to another event a couple of months down the line. If you are after a book that you can read to learn about the lives of these people, and to see the effects of some issues such as women’s rights in the late 1800s, this book is definitely for you. If, however, you are after a book that you can lose yourself in, and get to know the characters as if they are your best friends, maybe give this one a miss.
Landscape of a Marriage is avaliable to purchase on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon CA , Amazon AU and Publisher
Gail Ward Olmsted
Gail Ward Olmsted was a marketing executive and a college professor before she began writing fiction on a fulltime basis. A trip to Sedona, AZ inspired her first novel Jeep Tour. Three more novels followed before she began Landscape of a Marriage, a biographical work of fiction featuring landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, a distant cousin of her husband’s, and his wife Mary.
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Thank you to The Coffee Pot Book Club for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
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