Woman repressed, I’d call this. By her own self.
Margaret Mayfield, oldest daughter of three, begins life in Missouri in the mid1880s, and is considered by herself and her family to not be a good wife prospect. Too bookish and awkward. And she is not at all put out by this judgement. But then Captain Andrew Jackson Jefferson Early shows up (we later learn how manipulated this set-up was by both moms), and she figures, well, I guess so. He is quite tall and commanding, and so learned, publishing papers on the subject of ether’s place in the structure of the universe, and he is invariably respectful to her. So they marry and head off to the naval base of Mara Island in San Francisco Bay, where he in charge of weather reporting.
Life happens. There is a miscarriage, and Andrew is obsessed by his outdated theories (there are books of course, which Einstein has the audacity to snub, and she gets to type them all). The closest friends she makes however are in the Japanese community, which is soon to be devastated by the build-up to WWII.
In the end, however, it goes back to her first memory, of being taking by a cousin to a lynching at the age of five. Her mom was in childbirth, and this teen thought this would be entertaining. She has all her life claimed she really has no memory of it. But she does. And towards the end of her life, she can finally admit to all she has been witness to. No more refusing to see.
