Book Review: Eleanor in the Village: Eleanor Roosevelt's Search for Freedom and Identity in New York's Greenwich Village

(Bought at the Strand Bookstore's stand at Central Park and Fifth Ave. for $10) Jan Jarboe Russell's brief (around 200 pages) study of Mrs. Roosevelt and her time in Greenwich Village reveals some new details and information, but it's so short that it doesn't go very deep into her life behind the scenes as a political wife. Russell gets most of her details from other books and only includes a few interviews with descendants of participants. We get Eleanor and Franklin's bios in a nutshell, as well as the bargain they struck when she found out about his affair with Eleanor's social secretary. They stayed together for the sake of the kids and his political career--that and his mom said she'd cut him off without a penny if he divorced Eleanor. The couple agreed to live their own lives but to work as a political team. Eleanor rented an apartment on 11th Street in the Village and worked with progressive women--mostly lesbians---on her favorite causes. We don't learn much about her day-to-day existence. How did she balance duties in Albany, Hyde Park, and DC with motherhood and being FDR's hostess? What was life like in the Village at this time? Who lived there other than the few famous names mentioned? Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time offers a more detailed account of a typical day for both husband and wife in her first 100 pages.