There is no conflict about the existence of an open marriage in the White House (in a time when marriage was considerably more sacrosanct compared to the modern day, no less). There is no conflict about sexuality (in a time when homosexuality was considered abnormal and sinful, no less). We know that Franklin was busy with his own affairs of the heart during his White House years (and before), but would he really not care at all that he was being cuckolded in his own house in full view of his administration and children? Bloom imagines Hickok and Franklin having a sort of buddy-buddy relationship, which seems inexplicable.īloom’s portrait of the Roosevelts and Hickok is something of a utopia. Did her relationship with Hickok strain her relationship with Franklin? It does not appear so at all.

Was Eleanor conflicted about her sexuality? She doesn’t appear to be here. Part of the problem I have with White Houses is that Bloom skirts a lot of the issues. And when Franklin becomes president and it becomes clear that Hickok’s relationship with the new first lady is now a conflict of interest, Hickok resigns her post at the Associated Press to take a government job and live in the White House. She meets Eleanor when she is assigned to cover Franklin’s run for president, and instead of running with the theory that the two became fast friends, Bloom plays up their sexual attraction–making their meeting a somewhat deliberate flirtation. Bloom intends to suffuse the circus’ freak show with Hickok’s sexual awakening as a lesbian, but the whole affair (no pun intended) feels both glaringly unsubtle and alarmingly out of place.Įventually, Hickok becomes one of the nation’s most famous journalists following her work on the Lindbergh family kidnapping case. There, she has a bit of an affair with an intersex circus worker and feels intrigued by a girl with lobster hands. Bloom inserts an odd interlude where Hickok literally runs off with the circus. It tells the story of her abusive childhood and her mother’s death, continuing into her work as a housekeeper before escaping her father once and for all to strike out on her own in the world. White Houses is much more a fictionalized version of Hickok’s life. And it does, but not in the way one supposed and not as directly as one might have expected. White Houses assumes that they were lovers, which seems reasonable, and purports to tell the story of their relationship. Were they secret lovers? Merely close friends? The topic has been endlessly debated. Eleanor Roosevelt’s relationship with Lorena Hickok has been a source of controversy since the days it was happening in real-time.

Amy bloom eleanor roosevelt