Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray: A Novel Paperback – June 14, 2016

At a time in our nation’s history when it seems as divisive, if not more so, as it was in 1865 Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray: A Novel tells us the beautiful account of the relationship between the wife of General Robert E. Lee and the woman born into slavery, Mrs. Selina Gray. In a country where it’s fashionable to continue to demonize the South, Ms. Love’s account uncovers a deep and loving friendship between these two women.

It takes bravery to write this kind of fiction. Most historical fiction involves fictional people set in a place and time, occasionally part of important events. Ms. Love has chosen first person narrative to bring real people to life. And it works.Of course, the author had to take some liberties: we don't really know what these women were thinking in the situations in which they found themselves. But we do have a bare trace of their actions and sometimes their words. Connecting the dots, she does a good job of fleshing out historical figures we really don't know much about.One thing that struck me in particular was the character change we see: the war affected everyone. We grieve for the lost lives, for the destruction of Richmond, for the invasion. You can be a Yankee born and bred and come out of this knowing what Southerners still remember.Another great takeaway was the experience of being a slave--even to a good master--and the challenge of any kind of relationship between Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray. Some criticize the book for the reason that there wasn't a true friendship. The reality is that they had what was possible in that day and age. And that's another great truth we experience poignantly through the lens of first person point of view.The book treats of serious matters, but it is "clean" and written with care. Suitable for teens, in my opinion.

This story is based on a real friendship between Selina Gray, a slave and her owner, Mary Custis Lee. The story begins when Mary is a teenager and finds the love of her life, Robert E. Lee. They eventually marry, have children and live life. Selina is a young girl when the story begins with Mary teaching her how to read. Selina over time is put to work in the house, serving Mary’s mother and then Mary herself. While Selina is grateful for Mary teaching her how to read, she yearns for Mary’s father to set her free. Mary and her mother are members of a society that raises money to send former slaves to Liberia to start a new life.As Selina and Mary age, Mary especially suffers heartache. Her husband is gone for months and sometimes years at a time, serving in the military while leaving Mary to raise their seven children. This novel portrays a loving relationship between Mary and Robert, even though Mary knows from early on in her marriage that duty comes first with Robert. In this story, Mary is seen to always put his needs first and herself second something Selina also knows firsthand as she has to put the needs of her owner(s) first, then Selina’s family, then herself.While this novel is not brimming with action, suspense and chase scenes, it does a fine job of chronicling a friendship spanning fifty years between a slave and her owner. The two women in question were born and bred in the South with its attendant culture. Selina has always longed to be free and never forgets that Mary owns her. For me, the friendship aspect didn’t seem too obvious. Mary always treated Selina as a servant, with maybe the exception of when they went sledding as young women. The older Mary gets, the more heavily she depends on Selina. When they are forced apart due to the Civil War, Mary entrusts her home to Selina. This was not a book that really grabbed my attention and held it, but it was interesting to read this fictional account about a character from history that I knew nothing about and what her life might have been like. The author really did her research, and I thought the depiction of Mary in a new, more positive light than other books was a different twist.

This sensitive and at times, poetic novel dares to look at an epic story about two great American families, the Lee's and the Grays. The Lees loom large in early American history, as signers of the Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War heros and arguably the greatest general of the Confederacy. The Grays - equally great, but obscured by the reality of their lives as slaves in the Custis family, and in particular Selena, evidenced an irresistible humanity, depth and goodness that brings Selena, her husband Thornton and their family to life.Unlike "Gone with the Wind's" idyllic plantation, "happy" slave portrait; Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray paint a far more domestically and morally conflicted picture. Selena struggles personally and her fellow bondsmen and women struggle as well, with the hopelessness of their situation as slaves, despite the relatively benign treatment of their masters - the Custis' and later, the Lees. Mary Lee struggles to help emancipate slaves via the Colonization Society - a movement Abraham Lincoln supported and abolitionists ultimately detested; and she struggles with her own anti-slavery feelings in a slave culture.Dorothy Love has the courage and sensitivity to address the issues of slavery, the Confederacy and the times back when, that are today such hot and controversial issues. Well written and well done story.

This book was very interesting and well written. At the end it was also interesting to read about the historical background.