An fascinating work of historical fiction, Bloom has clearly done such thorough research into the lives of both women to create such a realistic portrait of what their lives might have been like. Their relationship is beautifully written, with some fantastic descriptions in there. My mistake with this book was not expecting the deep backstory of Lorena Hickock's life, or indeed that it would be written in first person from Lorena's viewpoint, but that's just something that can happen when you request a book on Netgalley - had I picked it up in a shop I would have been able to read a little and see that! Not to mention the fact that it's a matter of personal preference; some readers may prefer the more intimate approach it offers.

White Houses is a brisk, competent, affecting novel about Eleanor Roosevelt, told from the perspective of her lover, Lorena Hickok. Bloom is a natural storyteller who makes the most of a circus interlude and the magnificent, tragic bitchiness of Roosevelt's gay cousin Parker Fiske. I was terribly moved by her depiction of a long, good love between women in middle age and later, and her feel for the simultaneous ease and irritation of such a partnership.

I found this book really well written and so interesting. American presidents and their families is not an area that I read much about so this book was a little out of my comfort zone but I actually thought it was incredibly enjoyable to read. White Houses brings historical characters completely to life and shows that they were real people with real lives and emotions and not just famous faces. This book is a warm and touching love story and a great story.

I don't usually enjoy historical fiction but this was very well written with characters to root for and interesting too.

Oh I loved this - small book about the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and the journalist [[Lorena Hickok]] - told from the perspective of 'Hick'. A sweet account of love despite FDR's infidelity and the problems caused by being unable to be open about the relationship due to Eleanor's sense of duty, as well as the law. Hick navigates poverty, fairground life, and being a 'newspaperwoman', living her life in her own way in plain sight before she meets Eleanor and is smitten. (Netgalley book)

"You are not just my port in the store, which is what middle-aged women are supposed to be looking for. You are the dark and sparkling sea and the salt, drying tight on my skin, under a bright, bleaching sun. You are the school of minnows we walk through. You are the small fishing boat, the prow so faded you can hardly tell it's blue. You are the violet skies, rain spattering the sand until it's almost mud, and you are the light to come"

“White Houses” must be one of the most touchingly romantic stories I’ve read in a long time. This is also a novel with searing political insight that offers an alternative view of history. Amy Bloom writes from the perspective of Lorena Hickock who was a journalist and author of the early-mid 20th century. She also shared a strong relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The enormous affection between these two women is well documented but historians still disagree about whether their relationship was physical or not. In Bloom’s novel, Lorena and Eleanor’s enduring love for each other is unequivocal and she frequently takes the reader into their bedroom – not in a gratuitous way, but to show the transformative effect and power of the intense love they shared. At the same time she portrays the seat of government throughout crucial years of US history when FDR led the country through The Depression and the Second World War. This was also a time in LGBT history when FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sought to persecute “subversive” behaviour and specifically kept a large file on Eleanor who was a famed liberal and civil rights activist. The result is a tale which is large in scope while also offering an achingly intimate portrait of a love affair cruelly shaken by extraordinary circumstances.

Lorena’s narrative weaves together fragments from her long relationship with Eleanor from blissful moments of their “honeymoon” when they escaped together to enjoy some solitude the painful time when Lorena moved out of the White House to avoid embroiling Eleanor in a scandal. She also recounts the story of her life from an impoverished childhood to the tricky position of being a female reporter trying to hide her lesbianism: “I pretended that even though I hadn’t found the right man, I did want one. I pretended that I envied their wives and that took effort.” What’s interesting particularly interesting about the way her past is related is that its in the context of a scene where Eleanor invites Lorena to tell the story of her life. While the reader receives the unedited version, Lorena leaves out parts that she knows will particularly distress Eleanor such as the sexual abuse she suffered from her father as an adolescent and her moment of sexual discovery with an individual named Gerry who is “brother and sister in one body” at a carnival she worked at for a brief period. This strikingly shows the complexity of how lovers exchange stories of their pasts which are carefully edited or modified, not necessarily in order to deceive their partner, but to drip feed what they know their lover can take.

Something I loved so much about this novel is the way Bloom realistically portrays the physicality of these women’s relationship. Lorena and Eleanor are aware that they aren’t “conventional beauties” but in bed “what may not look beautiful does feel beautiful.” It’s so moving the way she describes how features which would be scorned in public can become desirable qualities in the intimate space of romance. What’s more she describes how empowering this can be: “In bed, we were beauties. We were goddesses. We were the little girls we’d never been: loved, saucy, delighted, and delightful.” It’s a safe area where these individuals can reckon with their pasts and identity can become fluid to escape the confines of the roles they have to play in public. The only novel I can recall that comes close to exploring this kind of complexity is Garth Greenwell’s “What Belongs To You” – especially in the way that both books portray how LGBT people seek out spaces where desire can be honestly expressed as a way to enact all the multifaceted aspects of their personalities which aren’t socially acceptable to reveal in public.

What’s so especially wonderful about this novel is that Lorena’s voice is so witty and engaging. She’s a plain-talking journalist who often cuts through the social niceties of high society’s pomp. Lorena speaks frankly to Eleanor’s daughter, a tortured gay cousin who comes close to ruining the family and Franklin D Roosevelt’s lover. She hilarious recounts her frank disdain for the “pink turkey parts” men have between their legs. There’s also a mesmerising intensity to her insomniac wanderings through the White House late at night where she sometimes encounters FDR to share a nightcap. She remarks of him that “He was the greatest president of my lifetime and he was a son of a bitch every day.” But, despite her hardened attitude which she acquired from such a challenging life, Lorena maintains a touching idealism and hope in her relationship with Eleanor that “Our love would create its own world and alter the real one, just a little.” It’s an important message and one which makes this historical novel all the more relevant today given that the US is more politically divided than ever and the echoed message of “America First” carries with it such stifling reactionary sentiments. “White Houses” gives us a portrait of the past which makes it clear how America has always been a nation where there are multiple meanings of the word home.

This is a beautiful love story about the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena 'Hick' Hickock. Set during a weekend in April 1945 following the death of FDR, Hick looks back over her own life and the highs and lows of her affair with Eleanor. Amy Bloom brings the characters vividly to life and has a lovely turn of phrase. I wish I'd had more time to devote to reading this week as it's the kind of book I could get lost in - the fewer sittings you can read it in the better.

It's an area of history I know very little about (I'm British so my knowledge of most First Ladies is cursory at best!) so I don't know how much evidence there is for this story, but I'm definitely inspired to do some reading around the subject.

White Houses by Amy Bloom made it onto our list of New Books to Look Out For in May 2018 prior to me reading it because I had heard good things about it.

In 1933, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt moved into The White House and with them moved Lorena Hickock otherwise known as Hick. White Houses tells the story of the secret and enduring love between Eleanor and Hick.

The thing that appealed to me about White Houses was how little I know about this period in American history. In fact, I knew Franklin Roosevelt had polio and was married to Eleanor and that was the extent of my knowledge.

White Houses is written in first person narrative from the perspective of Hick and focuses on several time periods during her relationship with Eleanor.

The book begins shortly after the death of Franklin Roosevelt with Hick anxiously awaiting a visit from Eleanor after years of being apart.

“I hope that in the mix of her feelings for Franklin, sorrow at his death, and grief for her children and for the country, she’ll be glad to see me. I want her to feel that with me, she’s home, like it used to be. She sent me away eight years ago, and I left. Two days ago, she called me to come and I came.”

For me the relationship between Eleanor and Hick was not the most interesting part of White Houses. My favourite parts of the book were the parts directly related to Hick’s troubled upbringing and historical events.

In 1932 Lorena Alice Hickock was a newspaper woman and made a name for herself as one of the primary correspondents covering the Lindbergh boy’s kidnapping. Like many other people Hick felt that there was more to the story than met the eye, but she also knew that Lindbergh was untouchable, and she was unable to write the story she really wanted to.

After that story her boss asked her to cover Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt’s move to The White House.

“Eleanor Roosevelt might be dull and pleasant, which is what I’d heard, but I was pretty sure she hadn’t killed her own baby and sent an innocent man to fry for it.”

Hick and Eleanor were good friends from the start and eventually more than friends. I like that the author didn’t go into gratuitous detail over the details of their relationship, but I also felt like the relationship was portrayed as very unequal with Hick always holding something of herself back, her past.

“Eleanor asked me to tell her a once-upon-a-time story from my childhood. I said, let me think.

People like when their griefs balance, when their sufferings can share the same stage. My heartache, your heartache. My illness, your illness. Not my broken arm, your mass murder.”

White Houses was difficult for me to read initially but at about 15% I started to get into it a bit more and ended up finishing it in a day.

I decided to give White Houses 3.1 stars because although it was an interesting read I didn’t really feel any interest in their relationship or its outcome, it was the other aspects of the book I enjoyed.

What a lovely book. I would have devoured it in one go if I could have.
It provided an amazing insight into a period of history, and a passionate and gentle relationship. The President's wife (Eleanor Roosevelt) and her friend and lover (Lorena Hickok) were such interesting characters. The way the author told the story of their time together and revealed Lorena's abusive past, was beautifully and sensitively done. Their love for each other shines through, and although mostly fiction, the book is believable and feels so real.
I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it.

I was completely intrigued by the premise of this book. Other than having the vague idea that Eleanor Roosevelt was attracted to more than one gender, I didn't know anything much about her. Through White Houses, which is a beautifully written book, I feel like I've gotten to know her a little, as well as gaining more of an understanding about the politics of the time, and America between the wars and during World War II.

The story is told from the perspective of Lorena Hickok, who is portrayed in the book as Eleanor Roosevelt's lover. It's apparently unclear from the letters and other historical documents, on which this book is based, whether or not they ever had a romantic relationship, or whether their relationship remained platonic. Bloom shows the relationship as having been something of an open secret within the White House and amongst the Roosevelts' friends. This gives a fascinating insight into what it was like to be queer at that time, particularly as someone in the public eye.

I don't know how much of the book is true and how much is fiction, but it makes for a very interesting story. Bloom has woven into the romantic storyline politics, economics, and commentary on contemporary society. Particularly in terms of Hickok, whose  childhood in poverty and experiences as a young woman who knows that she's different from other people set her aside from many of the others in her circle, and give her quite a different perspective from Eleanor Roosevelt, who's had a far more privileged life.

This book also made me think quite a lot about Nicolle Wallace's Eighteen Acres, which also covers a journalist having an affair with the President's spouse - in this case, the First Husband. The contexts are vastly different, and obviously Eighteen Acres is completely fictional, but it's so interesting to see how different things were in a world where the media could actually be managed, and where the public really only knew what was reported in the newspapers.

There were, however, some things I struggled with about the book. I sometimes found it hard to work exactly where I was in the timeline of Lorena's life and her relationship with Eleanor, particularly where Lorena was thinking about past events but not actually sharing them with Eleanor. The prose is quite beautiful, but there were parts where the elaborate writing overshadowed the story and added to my difficulty in keeping track of where I was. And at the end of the day, whilst I think this is a well-written book, I didn't feel emotionally connected to the characters. I was interested in the story, so it was a pleasant enough read, but I didn't feel fully engaged in what I was reading.

White Houses is a super interesting take on a historical relationship between a First Lady and her First Friend. It's a beautifully written book which offers some interesting perspectives on a troubled time in history, and a cast of queer characters at a time in America when that was a very risky thing to be. It wasn't a book that I personally particularly enjoyed, but I would recommend it to anyone who's interested in a queer character's perspective on a fascinating time in American history.

I love alternative imaginings of historical events and like the premis of this one a lot, however after the promising start it became too experimental in style for me and depended on too much prior historical knowledge about the private lives & events surrounding the characters.
Lots to discuss however and perhaps with that I'd get more from the book.

I began reading this book with great interest and was looking forward to watching the lesbian romance unfold. Bloom has written sensitively about the relationship that unfolds between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok, and I found White Houses to be an interesting historical fiction novel. It took a while to get used to the style of writing, and at times I was confused by the narrative. Once I had settled into the novel it became more enjoyable. I did not feel a strong connection with the characters, but enjoyed the novel as a whole.

Opening in 1945, shortly after the death of President Franklin D Roosevelt, Lorena Hickok, known as ‘Hick’, recalls her first meetings with Eleanor, the development of their relationship and her move into the White House. What follows is a series of flashbacks to the years they shared together.

One such flashback is to a train trip during which they share their most intimate secrets and childhood memories. Eleanor’s stories take only a few minutes of reading time. Hick’s take much longer. Indeed the story sharing scene seems to act as a pretext for a long section depicting the traumatic events Hick endured as a child, her escape from an abusive home, her time spent with some delightfully eccentric circus folk and her eventual move to a career in journalism. At the same time, it charts the awakening of Hick's sexuality and her growing realisation that marriage was never going to be a route she would take, that ‘Women were not interruptions, for me.’

Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the way Hick’s early life was written about but I wasn’t expecting it would form such a focus of the book. Throughout the book, I felt I was getting to know Hick a whole lot better than I was getting to know Eleanor, who always remained somewhat elusive as a character even during flashbacks to scenes in the White House. At times, Hick’s adoration for Eleanor serves to make that undoubtedly great lady appear a little like a saint on a pedestal. ‘I loved being the brave and battered little dinghy. She loved being the lighthouse.’

I really liked the narrative voice the author created for Hick with its sharp dialogue, witty wisecracks and waspish putdowns. ‘I’d met Wallis Simpson. Twice. She wasn’t pretty. She was a skinny rough-houser from a shitbox Southern town but she had done a phenomenal job of remaking herself, vanquishing good looking rivals, and turning a genial, not stupid, sort of spineless royal into her love-slave.’

What I also admired was the convincing, heartfelt and sincere depiction of the love between two women. There were lovely little intimate moments that revealed the women’s affection for each other.

‘She smiled when she saw me coming and I did the same. When we had breakfast together, I sometimes took a sausage off her plate.’

‘And when I was the object of her love, when her eyes lit up across the room, when she touched her fingertips to the pulse at the base of her throat, to mark the spot for me, to mark herself, I thought that there was no sacrifice I wouldn’t make.’

As a story about the relationship between two women at a time when such relationships had to remain largely secret, White Houses scores highly and there was a great deal that I enjoyed about the book. The true nature of Eleanor and Lorena’s relationship has been disputed by historians over the years and the author freely admits that White Houses is a ‘work of fiction, from beginning to end.’

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Granta Books, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States, a fact I’m sure all good American school children could instantly spout, should they be asked. Even as a British citizen born 20 years after his death, FDR was a familiar historical figure, along with his wife, Eleanor, because of the central role they played in the Second World War.

Naturally, I knew all about Winston Churchill, our Prime Minister during Britain’s darkest days, though he had died the year I was born, but Hitler, Roosevelt, Stalin and Mussolini were commonly known personalities from the past. More surprisingly, perhaps, was that a Welsh child of the 1970s could identify a former US President’s spouse. With the exception of Jackie Kennedy, these women were almost invisible, not sufficiently recognisable for us even to describe them as their husband’s sidekicks. At best they were viewed by the wider world as simpering subservients, if we bothered to think about them at all. Not so, Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a ‘character’ – a feisty, indomitable, outspoken woman who worked tirelessly for the underdog. Even I knew she was a person held in high regard.

Born in 1884, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (she preferred to use her middle name) was the daughter of New York socialites and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt. Her family was immensely rich and privileged, but she lost her mother to diphtheria at the age of only eight, and her alcoholic father died two years later after throwing himself from a window during a fit of delirium tremens. She was raised in the household of her maternal grandmother, where she was starved of affection and criticized for being unattractive, which left her prone to depression for the rest of her life. However, by the age of 14, she had obviously realised that physical beauty wasn’t everything. She wrote: “no matter how plain a woman may be if truth and loyalty are stamped upon her face all will be attracted to her.” She was right. Eleanor went on to be a successful politician, diplomat, activist and the longest serving First Lady of the United States of America. Many believe Franklin couldn’t have done it without her.

In her novel, White Houses, Amy Bloom explores a close friendship that developed between Eleanor and the journalist, Lorena Hickock, the daughter of a dressmaker and a dairy farmer, who was raised in East Troy, Wisconsin. She had endured a childhood of isolation and abuse, but defied all odds, and by 1932 was the nation’s best-known female reporter, having beaten down a great many barriers that had traditionally kept women out of the industry. In 1928, she was assigned by Associated Press to interview the First Lady, and went on to cover FDR’s presidential campaign from his wife’s viewpoint. The women began a long, loving and (according to Bloom) deeply intimate relationship, the true nature of which has long been subject to debate.
So how authentic is the narrative of White Houses? Well, in the author’s own words she: “worked from the particulars and facts of geography, chronology, customs, and books by actual historians.” She does nevertheless stress that the book is complete fiction.

As to the likelihood of a passionate relationship developing between the women, we know, for instance, that Roosevelt was close friends with a number of lesbian couples; that she wore a sapphire ring Lorena had given her; and kept her friend’s picture on the wall in her study. It is also known that the women loathed to be parted, and that Lorena (who had enjoyed physical relationships with a number of women during her life) adored Eleanor. Indeed, the letters they exchanged when apart appear to leave little doubt that they were lovers.

Bloom herself says she was “inspired” by Blanche Wiesen Cook’s critically praised 1992 Roosevelt biography, in which it was claimed the relationship between the women was unquestionably romantic.
As to the novel itself, it is narrated in Hickock’s unique voice, switching between her colourful early life, The White House years, and eventual old-age leading to loss. We are carried along by the flow and rhythm of the women’s conversation, which is sometimes immensely funny and upbeat, occasionally sad, bitter or angry, but mostly affectionate and respectful.

White Houses is a remarkably intimate, deeply sympathetic portrayal of a forbidden love that flourished directly under the disapproving noses of the Establishment. It’s an incredible yet perfectly credible story. I found it well researched, perceptive and a pleasure to read.

I really enjoyed this novel and read of a sense of "what if". I spent a lot of time wondering how much of it really happened and that added to the enjoyment of the book. A very interesting historical fiction book with some issues as relevant today as they were then.

Thanks for letting me read this.

I was very excited to read this book as historical fiction is my favourite genre. It is the a fictional telling of the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickock. The first part of the book was very interesting telling the back story of Lorena’s childhood and her rise to become a female political journalist in a very male dominated world. However, I found the rest of the book slow and it didn’t hold my interest as much as the first part. I didn’t warm to any of the characters unfortunately and I found the timeline confusing in parts. It would however prompt me to find out more about these great ladies and also to read more by this author.

I was very interested because I have never heard of Lorena Hickok and Eleonor Roosevelt was just a wife of FDR for me. Concerning these expectations I was not disappointed, I got much information and was inspired to do some research. I realized that famous people are not only their deeds, but also their feelings. Very important information for me were the descriptions of American life, mostly mentioned only by the way, but describing it perfectly. The situation in South Dakota or during the Depression showed it in small details I liked. I was a bit confused by the style of the book, it took time to get used to it. At the beginning it was sometimes difficult to know who was speaking or if it is the present of the past. After a while I have got used to it, but in some chapters it was still the case. I liked the book anyhow and can recommend it for anybody interested in history and relationships.

I wasn't aware of any of the background around this story before reading the book and I think it might have been useful to have had some knowledge in advance. I found the book to be easy reading, but the story didn't really seem to go anywhere and I didn't find Eleanor to be clearly defined as a character, but described as a kind of icon without much personality. Hick's story was more interesting, but was written with detachment, which as it was written in the first person, I found to be rather odd. Overall I was expecting a book which would involve me more in the characters so I was disappointed in this aspect.

Amy Bloom has excelled in her fictionalised account of the intensely private and lifelong relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and campaign journalist, Lorena Hickok. Based on the surviving correspondence which passed between the two, Lorena’s personal journal candidly reveals the intimate desire, snatched moments and societal abandon she and Eleanor experience whilst out of the public eye. Bloom’s rounded portrayal of the loyal, and at times forgotten, Lorena alongside the First Lady’s carefully cultivated image attests to the era’s unyielding attitudes to normalised sexual bias.
White Houses is a beautifully written and poignant testament to the enduring quality of love between two very public characters. A beautiful book!

I was excited by the premise of this story - a fictional account of the lesbian romance between reporter Lorena "Hick" Hickok and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, one that I knew nothing about before coming across this book - but I found that it didn't quite deliver on its promise. A large portion of the book was Hick recounting her life from childhood up until she met Eleanor, which I felt on for too long when I came for the love affair, and I found that the narrative was too all-over-the-place for me to keep track of what was happening. Snippets of history were thrown together out of order: characters who died would later be resurrected for an earlier anecdote, which I found confusing. There's definitely a story in here, but I would've liked more focus on Hick and Eleanor, rather than what felt like the rambling, non-linear tale from an old woman recalling the past.