Daisy Chain (2023): The Women Behind FDR
By Justine Gilbert
Interweaving reality with fiction, Daisy Chain is an endearing account of the relationship between Daisy Suckley and her cousin, the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. One of the many women to have a profound impact on FDR’s life, Daisy is a charmingly vivid protagonist. It is through her eyes that we see this secretive story unfold. Daisy is warmly depicted; the fact that she is written by Justine, the grand-daughter of Daisy’s first cousin, means she is painted with a fond familiarity.
Society tells Daisy that as an unmarried woman in her forties, she is a spinster. Upper-class New York State makes for an immersive setting. Gilbert’s writing style is tinted with the same colour as the classics, which only adds to the validity of her voice. This setting contextualises the profoundness of Daisy’s, and the other women’s, stories.
FDR is painted with a tenderness not often seen. He won four elections, created the New Deal, and saw the US through the Second World War. Behind closed doors, some would say, he “appreciate[d] the company of women”. His gentle nature is made apparent, in amongst his toil. Most interestingly, FDR was America’s only disabled president; his story is one of strife and success. We get a glimpse of his suffering with polio, and the pain it caused both physically and mentally.
The most notable aspect of the book, in my opinion, is the intricate web of relationships between the women who surround FDR. This book is, after all, their story, not his. In addition to Daisy, we have Eleanor, FDR’s fierce wife, Missy LeHand, the supersecretary, and Frances Perkins, the ‘architect of social security’. I deliberately under-sell them in my former sentence - what history often gets wrong is pigeon-holing these women in their various labels. Gilbert makes it clear that these women were not black and white, but grey, and each formidably political in their own right. Perkins, in particular, was the driving force behind the progressive New Deal, and was the first female to serve as cabinet secretary. Many have heard of Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, another of FDR’s mistresses. Emotional biographies detailing their affair, such as Franklin and Lucy (2008) by Joseph E. Persico, are equally as intimate and telling, but neglect to recognise the power behind the web of women involved in FDR’s life by focusing heavily on Lucy. Of course, there is nothing wrong with delving deeply into one individual. But, it is within the subtlety of these women’s emotions that we see how they brought out a compassion in the president, and how their relationships with one another further influenced this chain reaction (pardon the pun), seeping into American politics. Gilbert is able to tease out these intricacies in a way that reads smoothly, giving each woman their own distinct voice.
It is no wonder that this book won both the Page Turner Award, and Historical Fiction Company Silver Medal, in 2022, and has been shortlisted for the Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2024. From the turn of the first page, this book proves itself to be a well-researched and deeply engrossing portrait of a chapter in American history often skimmed over. I would recommend Daisy Chain to anyone who wants a better understanding of FDR himself, and women's history in the political landscape. It is a true hidden gem.