The Engineer's Wife - Fantastic tale of the Brooklyn Bridge

The Engineer's Wife
by Tracy Enerson Wood
4.5/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐🟇


I could tell I was going to love this book after 3 sentences! The writing is fantastic!

The Engineer's Wife is the story of Emily Roebling, whose husband and father-in-law designed and began the building of the Brooklyn Bridge just after the Civil War. Her hand, whose first name is Washington (Wash) gets a bad case of the bends during underwater construction and is basically bedridden. Emily, having an interest in his work, takes over supervision of the project, at first shuttling orders back and forth, but learning more, and becoming integral to the project. The story is interwoven with real events and characters, although some situations are construed for dramatic effect.

The story is so well-told, the author does a great job of painting a picture of the era and the people with her words. The action moves along really nicely most of the time, not too fast, and not too slow. There is a secondary storyline involving PT Barnum that is lots of fun, and really enjoyable. It also made me want to learn more about what a caisson is, and how the bridge was built.

The only downside to the story for me, and this may actually be true to the period is that after his illness, Wash never really appears to be sexually active/interested in his wife again, and she ultimately is OK with that. I don't know how it would be possible to live the rest of one's life without physical love.

This book is an excellent jumping-off point for discussions of women's rights, women's suffrage, etc. I think it would be a great choice for book clubs, and there are some book club notes at the end that are very thoughtful.

I could also see this book being a film- I think it would be a great adaptation, it really lends itself to the visual, there are many scenes that would be so dramatic in nature.
All in all, this was an excellent book, I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if that were an option!

Thanks very much to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy of this book at NC, my opinions are unbiased and my own.