Publication July 30, 2024
There are already a lot of quite detailed reviews out, so I'm not going to try to summarize the contents. I'll simply say, I liked it. Perfect? Of course not. No matter how much we reviewers gush over books we've really liked, no book is perfect. This one, however, does an excellent job of not only pulling the curtain back on the real backstory of Maria von Trapp.but the story behind the making of the musical "Sound of Music". Many of us have seen the movie version repeatedly and simply looking at the cover is enough to start hearing the title track in our minds. Michelle Moran has done an intensive, in-depth research effort here and it shows.
Being a history buff, I found myself putting the book aside at times to do a deep dive into the proverbial rabbit hole to see what else I could glean of the times of Maria's life. I was actually somewhat surprised to discover how many of the probably "little known facts" I actually knew, maybe because at some point I recall reading Maria's own book. What I didn't know or had forgotten, however, were the darker elements of Maria's own childhood. Reading about it, it's easily understood why finding her own family, her own place of security, was so important to Maria. With the fictional Fran Connelly as the conduit, we get a glimpse of the real Maria. The strength and, yes, stubbornness that surely helped her survive her youth and endure. Is she always a sympathetic character? Far from it. Unlike the sweet faced, perky, seemingly always cheerful character depicted by Julie Andrews, Maria was far more complex.
As it turned out, due to "life", I wound up reading the book over a period of days in spurts. Normally a negative, this may have worked to my benefit. The book is broken into sections, or points of view. By sheer luck, I usually found myself finishing one POV just as I had to take a break from reading. Fran's were in what we'll call the then present time while, for lack of a better way of explaining it, Maria's might best be described as flashbacks containing flashbacks. There's a great deal to take in. For me, while Fran's sections didn't hold my attention as well as those featuring Maria -- after all, that's who we come to this book to read about -- they did a good job of linking the past and present. especially as we see how Maria's story helped Fran work through a difficult span of her own life. In the process, we not only get to learn about Maria's life but get to see a side of how musicals/movies are created and the hows and whys of what might be included or rejected.
Bottom line, I highly recommend this book. Knowing the "rest of the story" only enhances our enjoyment of both. Sure, the plot may not be 100% accurate but the core of the story, as we learn, is there. In fact, for the curious, make sure you read the author's notes and "Whatever Happened to..." section. Those were fun. Maria's story is complex and intriguing and you'll come away feeling more empathy and kinship with the entire von Trapp Family. My thanks to #NetGalley and #RandomHousePublishingGroup for allowing me this peek behind the scenes of a story we all thought we knew. Nope. We weren't even close. Let's face it. Life is complex.
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