She Treads Softly: Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp

Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp by Michelle Moran
7/30/24; 320 pages
Random House

Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp by Michelle Moran is a very highly recommended real story of Maria von Trapp's life and how it contrasted with the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Most people know the story according to the musical, however that doesn't portray the true, real life events.

In the 1950s, Oscar Hammerstein is writing the lyrics to a new Broadway musical based on the life of Maria von Trapp. When Maria saw the script supposedly based on her life, she headed to talk to Hammerstein to set the record straight. Maria ends up meeting with his secretary, Fran, who meets with Maria several times to hear her real life story. Fran dutifully writes down all of Maria's concerns to give to Hammerstein and the two strike up an unlikely friendship.

Nostalgia runs high in Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp. Some readers interested in this novel will already be acquainted with some of the true events in Maria's life. Moran does an excellent job telling the real story which also serves to show why the choices were made to write the play as it was.

The narrative alternates between Maria recounting her life story to Fran and Fran's life leading up to the Broadway opening of the play. Maria wasn't as perfect as depicted in the play and Georg wasn't quite as stern in real life. The complete, true story is much more compelling, complicated, and difficult than the movie version. The movie does contain some of the real events in their lives.

After she saw the play, Maria thoughtfully commented that it wasn't exactly their life story, "But our love for God and family was there, and this is what has always been most important." As Moran hoped, this novel truly is like a plate of warm, sweet cookies baked by your grandmother and it will renew any obsession you have with The Sound of Music. Thanks to Random House for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.