I didn’t know, when I went on vacation to Stowe, Vermont several years ago, that the Von Trapp Family wasn’t just a fictional construct! When the family emigrated to America, they settled in Stowe, and Maria (who really had been a nun at first) wrote their memoirs, which is what inspired the musical.
I was really quite surprised at how well this was written, since Maria wasn’t otherwise an author, but I found her prose compelling and delightful from the start. The musical is mostly about her romance with the Captain, though that takes up only the first few chapters of the book (and while the movie is largely accurate, there are some far less romantic details in there too, which I thought made the story even better, oddly enough!) Their escape from Austria is also toward the very beginning of the book. The rest is all about becoming the Trapp Family Singers, getting to America, touring America, and then settling in Stowe. It’s anecdotal therefore, without a clear plot (as life often doesn’t have one!), but there are some laugh-out-loud moments as she describes their cultural assimilation. They were also strong believers, so many of the anecdotes are focused on God’s miraculous provisions to deliver exactly what they need at precisely the right moment. It ends sad (real biographies can’t really escape ending in death, loss, and/or the end of an era), but it’s otherwise a very inspiring, uplifting read.
My rating: *****
Language: none
Violence: none
Sexual content: none
Political content: none
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