America's First Daughter

America's First Daughter reminded me of the family sagas that I used to enjoy reading. But this wasn't just some fictional family saga. Authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie did years of research to write the factually based family history of the Jefferson family. The Thomas Jefferson family.

But unlike most factual stories about our third President, Thomas Jefferson, this story was told from the perspective of his oldest daughter, "Patsy" Jefferson.

Both Patsy and her father made deathbed promises to Patsy's mother. Jefferson promised to never find another wife and Patsy promised to take care of her father and ... to be happy.

This fairly hefty novel is full of American history, tales of the French revolution, family drama, politics and other alliances. Ever since I first heard the story of Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's slave mistress, I was intrigued. On that point, this story did not disappoint.

What I did struggle with was the language the authors used. It was written in what I guess they approximated to be the language of the times. So some of it was tedious and it definitely made for a much slower read. Did it ring more true written in this style? Perhaps. But I think I might have preferred that the authors stuck to this type of language only when writing dialogue - which they said often came straight from a collection of Jefferson's letters - and used more everyday language for the narrative.

I was reminded again about how little I understand about the French revolution but reinforced all I've learned (more recently) about the close relationship between our democracy here in the United States and the democracy in France.

Now I'd like to get back to Monticello, a place I only visited as a small child. Maybe if we're ever able to take our planned drive up to New York, we can stop there on the way up or on the way home.

If you're a fan of historical fiction and you like big fat books, you might like this one.