The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
Generally when I write about a book, it’s because I absolutely love it and think a lot of other people would enjoy it.
Very rarely, I write about a book that is so bad, I need to express my rage about it.
And then, sometimes, I read a book like The Astronaut Wives Club that falls somewhere in between.
I’m not strongly recommending it, but I didn’t hate it either. I guess I just have things to say.
To start with, the space race and NASA are particular interests of mine (my nerdy interests – they just keep coming). My dad introduced me to Tom Hanks’ incredible HBO series From the Earth to the Moon when I was in high school, and I’ve been fascinated ever since. I’ve watched the entire series (12 episodes) probably 5 or more times. Bart and I watched it together when we were engaged and he liked it just as much as I did.
Seriously. Go find a copy and watch it.
Right, back to the book.
the astronaut wives club by lily koppel
The concept was fascinating to me. You have these astronauts who are the faces of the US’s big push, thanks to JFK, to make it to the moon. They are instant celebrities, chosen to be All-American heroes. Which meant, of course, they needed to be clean-cut and have happy home lives.
Life Magazine got an exclusive to do huge stories on both the astronauts and their wives, which included a payout of some $70,000 to each of the astronauts. For families who had been living on $7,000 military salaries, this was like hitting the jackpot. And aside from the money, there were all the perks that came along – trips to the White House, free sports cars, planes for the astronauts to commute between Texas and Florida, etc, etc.
The wives knew how important it was that they present a good front to the American public. For instance, one of the original Mercury Seven had been unfaithful to his wife before he was chosen, and, after twelve years of marriage, she’d left him. A few months later, he came to her and said, “It looks like I’m eligible to be chosen to be one of these astronauts. But they won’t pick me if I don’t have a happy, stable marriage. Will you come back?” She did. And he was picked. They held their marriage together for over a decade more (they eventually divorced).
And he wasn’t the only unfaithful one. Although the book doesn’t spend a great deal of time on it, you get the impression pretty quickly what a fast life a lot of these astronauts were living while they spent the entire week, every week, away from their families in Florida. Of all the couples the book follows (49), apparently only 7 made it through married (this doesn’t count the 8 astronauts who died, so really. . . it’s 15 who didn’t end up divorced).
Of course, those sorts of marital problems were only a piece of the problem. Most of these guys had been test pilots before they were astronauts, so the death toll was astoundingly high, and being an astronaut was just as bad. You knew your chances of being widowed were enormous (Marilyn Lovell asked the director of NASA just before Apollo 8 – the flight that was the first to orbit the moon – what the chances of her husband coming home were. He told her 50-50).
And having to deal with the stress of regular marriage plus extreme risk was made all the worse by it playing out in front of the entire country (and world).
The Astronaut Wives Club was full of fascinating stories, interesting details, and real-life people trying to deal with a life they never could have expected. It made me want to learn more about NASA and the space race and the sixties (the decade of the 20th century I find most fascinating).
But there were just too many people it was trying to follow. First you had the Mercury Seven astronauts and wives. The the New Nine and their wives. Then 28 more (14 wives and 14 astronauts) and then another set of 19 astronauts.
No WAY are you keeping track of all of those people. I even knew the names of MANY of the astronauts and some of the wives, thanks to From the Earth to the Moon and I still couldn’t even begin to keep track. You got such tiny bits of each person, that they all kind of blended together for me.
And the book jumped around quite a lot, so it was hard to really even tell what mission you were reading about or what astronaut or wife.
I wished it had focused just on one set of the astronauts and wives (or maybe two) – all of them was just too many. I wanted to know MORE about each one of them, not just a sprinkling of stories of women I couldn’t keep straight.
The astronauts were incredibly competitive with each other as they jockeyed for positions on various flight lineups, which bled over to the wives, and there was a fair amount of animosity between groups, as each new group of astronauts that joined NASA reduced the money coming in from Life Magazine, and diluted their stardom. They lived near each other and some of them were close friends, but in the end, when the author reported that, in interviews, several had said this was the best time of their lives, I could hardly believe it. Exciting, yes. But mainly stressful and isolating.
And I didn’t feel any sense of really getting to know these women at all. Instead, they all felt very distant and removed. It was interesting, but not engaging in the way I wanted.
The Astronaut Wives Club has been getting an enormous amount of press, so I’m curious to see what other people have thought. Anyone else read it yet?
I did like this book, but there were too many characters- I had to refer to the list in front frequently. And, if anything I am more curious about the astronauts and their wives after having read this book- there were many fascinating stories, but none were really covered in depth since there were so many people being written about.
Yup, I agree with what you said! It was interesting, but there were way too many people to try to follow and I never felt like I got to know any of the women very well. I would have preferred a book that chose a handful to follow more closely. Also, since many of the women had the same or similar first names, that made it even harder for me to keep track of them!
I found the book really lopsided. The first part when it's just the mercury pilots and their wives it feels like there is quite a bit of detail. As they add more and more in, it's harder to follow or connect. It kind of just fell apart. It made me want to read books about specific astronauts to find out more.
I'm glad you reviewed this book. When I first read about it, I was intrigued. In fact, I think I recommended at one point that you might find it interesting. Having lived through the space race, I think I would still like to read it, although unlike you, I am not a speedy reader and may never finish Game of Thrones. I also don't like reading more than one book at once.
Maybe you should read "Packing for Mars". It looks at the history of the space missions from a more scientific perspective but I found it absolutely fascinating!
I agree with mel. I was going to suggest you check out "Packing for Mars" by Mary Roach. She starts with the satellites and then animals who were sent into space before covering the history of humans going into space, and looks at (and answers) all those questions not normally covered in space history documentaries (e.g. how did they come up with the current space toilets?) Mary Roach's writing is informative, wry, and, at times, fall out of your chair hysterical. But it's also well-referenced, and backed up either from interviews or through research.
I liked this book but I liked the first half better than the second. The more people they introduced, the more confused I became. I thought it was interesting but I would have liked it to be more in depth on fewer people. Thanks for the suggestion on the Tom Hanks series. I will have to check it out.
I read it. It was just OK. I was disappointed.
I agree. This book had great potential, but it got more and more confusing as the book went on. I also agree with Tina who said that the book made her more curious about the wives. I mean, how did the wives REALLY feel about their husbands extracurricular activities? Maybe I just wanted more juicy details.
Just wondering if you've seen any of the TV show on ABC?
Nope. Any good?
Yes, I think it's very good. After each episode, I spend a lot of time researching each of the women and the accuracy of the events. It is hard to tell what is true and what's been fictionalized for a better story.
I’m so glad you reviewed this! I’ve been thinking about it for a while. My husband works at NASA and I live in Rocket City, USA (Huntsville, AL), so this is pretty dear to my heart. It’s a shame it isn’t more well done- I’ll add it to my library list instead of buying.