It’s so fun to escape into a story. It’s even more fun when that story is about a real person – someone you have heard of and may even know something about. A fictionalized biography really fleshes out a character for me in a way a regular biography doesn’t. Biographies tell people’s stories, but fictionalized biographies let you see inside a person’s head. It gives you insight into who they are and makes them seem more real.
Sometimes these fictionalized stories aren’t about the famous person at all. Sometimes they are about people peripheral to the famous person, such as a wife or a maid. These are also fascinating because you get an inside look at how other people perceive them. You get to know their stories from someone else’s viewpoint.
I’ve always loved biographies because it’s interesting to learn about lives and times that are different from my own. When done well, I get engrossed in the stories and can live vicariously through their experiences.
These 5 fabulous fictionalized biographies will transport you to another place and time while learning about some fascinating people! Enjoy!
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The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
This book tells the story of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife. Fictionalized, yet based on her history, this story takes you from Chicago, where the two seemingly opposite people meet, fall in love and get married, to Paris, the epicenter of the arts, culture and wild times. Hadley and Hemingway begin to mix and mingle with famous artists and writers including F Scott Fitzgerald and Picasso. And as Hemingway finds his niche and grows his talent and success, he becomes more removed and distant from his loving and faithful wife until their marriage reaches a breaking point.
This book does not portray Hemingway in the best light, but does leave you cheering for Hadley! I highly recommend!
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Mamah Borthwick Cheney, a married Chicago socialite with two children, hires the brilliant and talented Frank Lloyd Wright to build their new home. Mamah, beautiful and also brilliant, has settled into family life that is comfortable, if not exactly happy. Feeling no real connection to her husband, she busies herself with charity work, and lectures on women’s issues at the local college. But from the first moment they meet, Frank and Mamah feel a strong connection and chemistry that becomes too powerful to ignore. The two enter into a clandestine relationship that can only end badly, especially for a married woman in the 1920s.
This book is based on the true story of Frank and Mamah. The tragic ending will leave you reeling.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Ann Fowler
Zelda’s life as the wife of a famous writer could not look more different from Hadley’s experience in Paris Wife. Zelda had a completely different personality, being labeled as the “first flapper.” Outgoing, confident and beautiful, Zelda was a force to be reckoned with. Their lives were filled with travel, fancy hotels, restaurants, parties, champagne, music, fights, mental illness and great sadness. It was an excellent portrayal of a smart, if somewhat selfish, woman who was bigger than the times would allow her to be, stifled by her family, her friends and her husband.
The Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Not strictly a fictionalized biography, this story gives the reader a possible background into one of history’s most elusive artists, Johannes Vermeer. Vermeer lived in Holland in the mid 1600s. He was a famous painter in his time, although his fame increased as time went on. Little is known about his life, except through a few legal documents. That’s one of the reasons this story is so compelling. It fleshes out the man behind some of the greatest works of art. Vermeer is famous for painting women in domestic scenes. His portrait of the Girl with a Pearl Earring is different from the rest, leaving the world to wonder, who is that girl? Chevalier gives us a version of that answer in this book. A book that not only gives us insight into those times, but also into the man himself.
An American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
