As a non-American, I eyed my review copy of the 400-page Washington’s Lady with a little apprehension. How was I going to stomach a tome about America’s first first-lady – someone I’d certainly had no interest in till now? I needn’t have worried. For in author Nancy Moser’s capable hands, I soon began to care about what happened to the grief-stricken, yet high-spirited widow Martha Dandridge Custis. And my fascination lasted to the end. The story begins just after Martha’s first husband dies. It covers all of George and Martha Washington’s lives together, ending with Martha’s death in 1802, two years after George died.

The book’s 18 chapters are organized into three main sections. “The Golden Years” (Chapters 1-8) tells of George and Martha’s courtship and early marriage. “Our Glorious Cause” (Chapters 9-15) gives us the growing revelation of what the colonies’ resistance to Britain will mean to the country and to the Washingtons in particular. We see firsthand the grim conditions on the battlefield and come to appreciate the sacrifices many made for freedom. “The Course of Duty” (Chapters 17 -18) takes us to the end of the war and shows the pressures on George and Martha as George agrees to become the first American president while remaining responsible for a large and needy family. Though writing around a plot that has been largely determined by real life must be tricky for a fiction writer, I felt Moser did a good job of weaving an interesting character-centered story using the plot cards history dealt her and adding a few of her own where the record was mute.

The way Moser weaves that story is by creating many short scenes. Each chapter consists of a multitude of vignettes of varying lengths told in first person by Martha. In this way we get a well-rounded view of this plump, determined, optimistic, warm woman, who is also generous, unpretentious, hospitable, industrious, a smothering mother, doting grandmother, and an unendingly devoted wife. The other main character, George, is seen through Martha’s eyes and Moser manages to preserve our sympathy and respect for him, even when viewed at such close range.

There are a host of secondary characters and I did, from time to time, find myself puzzling over who was who. A family tree or some sort of chart illustrating the relationships between characters would have been helpful.