A general’s daughter…
Coming of age on the perilous frontier of revolutionary New York, Elizabeth Schuyler champions the fight for independence. And when she meets Alexander Hamilton, General George Washington’s penniless but passionate aide-de-camp, she’s captivated by the young officer’s charisma and brilliance. They fall in love, despite Hamilton’s bastard birth and the uncertainties of war.
A Founding Father’s wife…
But the union they create—in their marriage and the new nation—is far from perfect. From glittering inaugural balls to bloody street riots, the Hamiltons are at the center of it all—including the political treachery of America’s first sex scandal, which forces Eliza to struggle through heartbreak and betrayal to find forgiveness.
The last surviving light of the Revolution…
When a duel destroys Eliza’s hard-won peace, the grieving widow fights her husband’s enemies to preserve Alexander’s legacy. But long-buried secrets threaten everything Eliza believes about her marriage and her own legacy. Questioning her tireless devotion to the man and country that have broken her heart, she’s left with one last battle—to understand the flawed man she married and the imperfect union he never could have created without her…
I’m going to be honest – I knew going in that I was going to love this book. To have my expectations met and then some was so exhilarating.
I wasn’t in the first wave of Hamilton (the Broadway musical) fans, more like the first & a half or second. I remember listening to the cast album in September of 2015, and by December I was reading the behemoth biography by Ron Chernow that inspired the musical. Beyond my interest in Hamilton and the founding father’s era, I loved Dray and Kamoie’s first novel “America’s First Daughter”, a fictional look at Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter Patsy; so, I was pretty excited for their next dive into Revolutionary women.
I like my historical fiction heavy on the historical and light on the fiction. The more details you can fit into the work, the better. Dray and Kamoie are wonderful at weaving historical fact throughout their fiction without heavy loading either end. Of course, there are aspects they have to take into their own hands and blur the edges of fact, but I would rather that than pure fabrication. In truth, Eliza didn’t make it easy on them by not preserving her own writings as well as she did her husband’s.
In this case in particular you can see they drew their inspiration, similar to Lin Manuel Miranda of Hamilton, from Ron Chernow’s biography (they mention this fact in their acknowledgements, but I caught on early). At almost 700 pages itself, My Dear Hamilton acts as a darling companion to Chernow’s own work. Furthermore, Dray and Kamoie explain in their afterword the choices they made in bringing Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton to life, and the fabrications they stitched together for narrative purposes. The mere fact they could defend their choices and explain the nuances between their novel and actual history excited me – I love reading why authors of this genre made the choices they did.
I could see the difficulties they would face, deciding to focus on a side player instead of the man himself, but very rarely if at all does it feel like Alexander overshadows Eliza. They gave Eliza the voice she deserved – strong willed, tomboyish, but selfless. This Elizabeth is allowed to be vulnerable, wrong and spiteful; but claw her way back and fight back when she wants. She is given her own stakes in the world surrounding Alexander Hamilton, her own connections to the revolution, Washington and beyond.
I love this journey of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton – I marveled at the Revolution with her, delighted in her connection with Alexander and felt the sting of betrayal with her (as well as the growing paranoia and annoyance of just how much Alexander kept from her). I knew Eliza’s story, but still felt the emotional toll that is her later life like a fresh wound, and from the perspective of Eliza herself I felt it all the worse. I would warn that this novel is not as rose colored as the Broadway musical – Alexander was a rake who cheated on his wife for over a year and kept much of himself private from her, Angelica was in a loveless marriage and seeking affection elsewhere, and Elizabeth could be too trusting.
Fortunately, Dray and Kamoie were able to add many more Revolutionary players and stories than Miranda – Elizabeth’s friendship with James Monroe is a surprising corner stone of the narrative, building throughout their lives til the crux when Monroe, already an ex-President of the United States, calls on Eliza only to be thrown out of her D.C. home! (Historians and readers of Chernow will know why.) Alexander’s pettiness towards Washington towards the end of the war is on full display, and rest assured that Peggy and the Tomahawk story is in there and just as badass as you’ve might have heard. And as with all Hamilton stories, Aaron Burr looms large in the background (this time actually with Theodosia). He’s like the shark from jaws, showing up at random points throughout the narrative; an annoyance but never seeming to be a true harm until it appears the threat has passed. Honestly, every time his name appears you could almost hear the theme from Jaws.
Have I gushed enough? I suppose so. I would truly, honestly recommend this to any Hamilton fan, Historical Fiction reader, or Revolutionary enthusiast looking for a read. Dray and Kamoie deliver historical accuracy with a character driven narrative that moves. I giggled to myself, I cried, I relentlessly kept flipping pages. All I can I hope for is that they team up again for another (-whispers- Dolley Madison or Abigail Adams, please)!
Title: My Dear Hamilton
Author: Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie
Page #: 658
Published: April 2018
Goodreads: Here
My Rating: ★★★★★ /5
Read For: N/A
Suggested Reading: America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie
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