Frank Wolff and Naomi Sims were married in 1908. Together, they bore 12 children. Naomi stayed home with the children and took care of the house while Frank, a railroad engineer, spent weeks at a time on the road. Naomi used the help of her two eldest daughters, Frances and Anita to wrangle the younger children and complete household chores. Naomi begins to feel trapped in motherhood and their small town of Ogden, Utah. When Naomi finally gets a chance to visit her parents farm in Kansas, she is able to relax and gets to know one of their farmhands, Charles and finally sees someone that wants to get to know her outside of being a mother and housekeeper. Meanwhile, while Frank is working on the rails, he is friendly with women in many of the towns where he has to stop for the night. One of his regular stops is in Evanston, Wyoming where Frank regularly boards with Minnie Woods. After years of marriage with Frank absent from his home and children, Naomi finally falls for Charles on a trip to her parents. When Frank finds out about Naomi's misstep, he enacts revenge in a spiteful and heartbreaking way that pulls the Wolff family apart.
A Wolff In the Family is based on the author's revelations about a secret that had been kept for eighty years. Pieced together from family memories and research, Falk-Allen creates an enticing historical family drama. From the beginning, I felt strongly for Naomi and Frances who were placed in an impossible situation of raising so many children and keeping a household together on one salary. Frances received a lot of responsibility from a very young age and had high expectations placed on her as the oldest daughter as well as many inequities of living with a large family. Naomi's situation resonated with me as I felt her loneliness grow chapter to chapter as Frank was gone for longer periods of time and seemed to resent her. It was no surprise that Naomi was drawn to someone who saw her as a person and not a caretaker. Frank was certainly a man of the time period, with specific tasks for men and women, double standards and feelings of superiority. His treatment of his wife and children are unforgivable and I'm surprised that most of his kids were more or less on his side. The pacing of the writing spends a lot of time setting up the many characters and their situation in the beginning and then speeds up near the end, wrapping up quite quickly while still giving a satisfying ending for the characters involved.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
A Wolff In the Family is based on the author's revelations about a secret that had been kept for eighty years. Pieced together from family memories and research, Falk-Allen creates an enticing historical family drama. From the beginning, I felt strongly for Naomi and Frances who were placed in an impossible situation of raising so many children and keeping a household together on one salary. Frances received a lot of responsibility from a very young age and had high expectations placed on her as the oldest daughter as well as many inequities of living with a large family. Naomi's situation resonated with me as I felt her loneliness grow chapter to chapter as Frank was gone for longer periods of time and seemed to resent her. It was no surprise that Naomi was drawn to someone who saw her as a person and not a caretaker. Frank was certainly a man of the time period, with specific tasks for men and women, double standards and feelings of superiority. His treatment of his wife and children are unforgivable and I'm surprised that most of his kids were more or less on his side. The pacing of the writing spends a lot of time setting up the many characters and their situation in the beginning and then speeds up near the end, wrapping up quite quickly while still giving a satisfying ending for the characters involved.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
