No Ordinary Time is a wonderfully well written biography which tells the story of "Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt -- The Home Front in World War II." Doris Kearns Goodwin has made a number of choices to tell herbiographical story with deceptive simplicity. I personally don't think thebook quite manages to completely encompass "The Home Front in WorldWar II" along the way, and I probably didn't want it to; instead ittells the story of the war through the Roosevelts' fascinating circle ofWhite House "family" members, with broader historical themestouching on that story.
The personal story works. I've never read quitethis sort of parallel biography before. In a lot of ways the relationshipbetween FDR and his astonishingly complex, compassionate wife makes aperfect lens through which to view the times. Goodwin has plenty of chancesto let Eleanor's various interests touch on different aspects of Americanlife; hardly anything escapes the first lady's list of interests andcauses, so there's no strain to include anything, that's for sure.
Isometimes found myself, though, wishing the emphasis was more squarely onbiography proper. Four or five times in reading the book, I becamemomentarily bogged down in passages involving, say, big picture statistics,and wanted to concentrate on the motives and feelings of Eleanor andFranklin again. In particular, Eleanor's various interests often serve tointroduce some new social issue, and I wanted to really understand *her*appreciation of things rather than reading a set of statistics she wouldn'thave had access to anyway.
Honestly, though, No Ordinary Time breatheslife into these people. You come away from the book understanding that theycould be huge, monumental figures and yet be complex and flawed and veryhuman at the same time. There's no taking away from the heart of the book.It's told well, and it makes a wonderful, rich, rewarding read.
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The Great Depression is an event that tends to dominate the history of America from 1920-1940, and while it certainly had an impact, this impact was not uniformly felt throughout the country. Other factors helped shape the modern world we live in today, and many of them had their genesis in the period 1920-1940. Music, movies, diet, fashion, where people lived, what they did on dates, and even family planning -- this book covers it all and does so in a way that is easy to read and entertaining. If you think the Depression and Prohibition are all there was to life during this time, then I recommend you pick up this book for a more well-rounded view.