Breakaway Books

Authored by Allison Pataki; Published 2022; Historical Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

Marjorie Post’s life is undoubtedly among the most fascinating I’ve ever read about. But, after picking up The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, I almost wish I had opted for a standard biography.

The titular lady is born to an entrepreneurial man who veers wildly from eccentricity to genius, right up until he strikes it big with the invention of Post cereal. Marjorie embraces the business with aplomb and becomes an heiress to a huge fortune, but she isn’t content to merely sit upon her riches. Instead, she leans into the management of the business at a time when women simply do not do that–and she is wildly successful. But, as much success as she finds in business, she finds absolutely none in husband… after husband… after husband.

For me, this novel walks a frustrating line between fiction and nonfiction. Written in the first person, clearly, the narrative itself is fiction, as this is not an autobiography. However, a certain amount of the events depicted must be true: the people she married, the work she did, the children she raised. I can see how the author, upon discovering how absolutely crazy this woman’s life was, thought it would make for a good novel, but constrained by the truth, she constructed a book that hums along at a steady pace, without the traditional structure of slowly building tension to an exciting climax. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the novel as I read it, but when I finished, I thought: “Oh, that’s it?”

Of course, the contents of Post’s life are incredible; I can see why the title refers to multiple lives. I was particularly intrigued by the interlude in which Post served as wife to the ambassador to Russia in the early twentieth century–it took the book in a whole new direction, and I loved watching Post attack the role with gusto. Apart from this chapter of her life, it seems that her experience is filled with money, money, and more money. She buys jets, yachts, endless jewels, and I found it difficult not to think of her as ridiculously excessive. Balanced against her love of all things material is her intense desire to serve, a trait I wish the richest classes today would share, and her unique ability to forecast what will make her family company succeed. I was nothing short of astounded by her ability to understand the importance of frozen food so early in the 1900s. All of which makes for an entertaining novel, if not the most well-structured one.

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post will certainly teach you a thing or two about life as one of the upper class in America in the twentieth century, and Post herself lives quite the life. As long as you’re not waiting for one exciting climax, you’ll enjoy the novel.