“The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post” - Allison Pataki

 🥣 MLMP is another fantastic, thoroughly researched, historical fiction by Pataki. Marjorie Post was the Post cereal heiress who led a remarkably adventurous life. The novel opens at Mar-a-Lago (Post had this residence designed for herself) in 1968 Palm Beach. Post is about to welcome President LBJ and Lady Bird Johnson to her home. She reflects on her myriad adventures - from cavorting with Alice Roosevelt (Teddy’s eldest) at the White House, to recovering the murdered Tsar’s treasures in St. Petersburg, to evading N*zi U-boats, to welcoming numerous presidents and their wives.

🥣 Pataki then takes the reader to 1891 Battle Creek, Michigan where we bear witness to meeting of two major cereal giants: Dr. Kellogg and C.W. Post. It was Post who introduced the world to tasty, easy to prepare, affordable breakfast options. Post recognized a desperate market and filled the void by emphasizing both taste and efficiency to save housewives time spent on daily breakfast prep.

🥣 Marjorie’s life with her numerous husbands, was a testament to female empowerment (she protects her fortune from greedy ex-husbands). She’d find herself in an unhappy marriage, and take steps to free herself; this was exceedingly unusual during her lifetime. While some might say she was terribly unlucky in love, she never stopped gambling on it.

🥣 I enjoyed the historical snapshot into all the innovation happening in the Midwest during the early 20th century. By the early 1900s, Post was shipping Grape Nuts from Battle Creek globally to far-flung customers such as the Emperor of China and the King of England. The relationships between innovators such as Post, Teddy Roosevelt, Henry Ford, and Mark Twain speaks of an American renaissance. The brothers Mayo even make an appearance - performing an emergency appendectomy for C. W. Post at their famed Rochester campus.

🥣 Jerry Seinfeld’s “Unfrosted” is a humorous take on the famed Kellogg/Post rivalry, with Amy Schumer starring as Marjorie. I highly recommend both MLMP and this comedic spin on the era.