This will be my, I believe fifth, book to review for the outdo yourself challenge. I read this for the book club I belong too. Even though this book has autobiography in the title, it is actually a novel, written in "first" person. It is about the life of Mrs. Tom Thumb (otherwise known as Vinnie Warren) in the mid to late 1800's. She was born like any other child, but at some point stopped growing very early so she was very petite in stature. She ended up meeting President's, Queens and performed for P.T. Barnum. According to the author Melanie Benjamin, Mrs. Tom Thumb own journal didn't go into too much detail about her experiences, I think this adds to the reason for sometimes the lack of detail on certain events. I wanted more information about her meeting the famous people during her lifetime and sadly it wasn't there. I just felt in the middle of the book she wasn't fair to others, came off as being uncaring, and more into her own ego. She definitely comes off as having complicated relationships, perhaps not knowing how to interact with others, at least with her husband (another famous person). There is no doubt that Mrs. Tom Thumb changed throughout the book, but at the end I didn't know how to feel about her. As the author said at the end of her book, that Mrs. Tom Thumb didn't go into detail of her own feelings, it is hard for us to really know for sure what she really thought or felt.
I enjoyed this story more in the beginning, but overall it was a good book.
Rank: 3 out of 5
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