Marjorie Post grew up poor. She worked with her father in their barn folding and taping cereal boxes to hold the breakfast food he was selling. All the hard work paid off . C.W. Post became the cereal king and Marjorie was heiress to his immense fortune. It didn’t come easily Marjorie had to fight he stepmother for control of the company after her father’s death, but she had to do it through her husband. Because of restrictions on women at the time, she couldn’t sit on the board. However, she was successful at controlling the company from outside.
Business success came with hard work, but love wasn’t so easy to find. Marjorie married and divorced four times. Each time she thought she’d found the right man. Each time she was wrong. Instead she filled her life collecting beautiful things and decorating her homes; one of the famous ones is Maralago now the home of Donald Trump.
The book is fiction although the author has done a great deal of research and is basically true to Marjorie’s life. The story is told in the first person. I found that a bit jarring. I typically don’t like to read historical fiction where the author pretends to be in the head of the subject. My other criticism was the amount time spent detailing Marjorie’s possession. I would have found it interesting to read more about her philanthropies and business career. However, it’s fascinating to learn more about one of America’s most celebrated heiresses.
I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.
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