The Story of the Trapp Family Singers - Maria Augusta von Trapp - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Maria Augusta von Trapp

GENRE: Memoir

PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1949

RATING: 2.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A memoir penned by Maria Von Trapp, whose life later inspired ‘The Sound of Music’. Written in 1949, much before the Broadway musical and the movie. Offers a decent glimpse of Maria and the Trapp family, and also indirectly shows us the liberties taken by Broadway/Hollywood in their portrayal. A good option for those who want to know more about how a rich Austrian naval captain’s family ended up becoming tour singers in the US.

Most English-movie watchers might have at least heard of ‘The Sound of Music’, even if they haven’t watched it. I had first seen this movie in my childhood and immediately fell in love with the music. (It broke my heart to discover that the couple from my favourite song ‘Sixteen Going On Seventeen’ didn’t proceed to a happy ending.) It was only many years later that I discovered that the movie was based on the actual family from Austria.

I have had this book in my TBR since ages, mainly as I'm a big fan of the music from the movie. There is an upcoming Random House publication, ‘Maria’ penned by Michelle Moran, which supposedly focusses on Maria’s reaction to the adaptation of her life story into a Broadway musical and later, a movie. But as it is a fictional work, I decided to first read Maria's life story in her own words so that I know the truth without (many) fictional embellishments.

Maria Von Trapp has written three memoirs. The second and the third memoirs came out in the 1970s, and focussed more on her own life, and possibly included details about the musical and the 1965 movie as well, I’m not sure. However, ‘The Story of the Trapp Family Singers’ was published in 1949, much before any adaptation. So the focus in this book is strictly, as the title suggests, on the family’s singing career.

By sheer coincidence (or possibly not), Maria begins her story at the same point as the movie does – her life as a novitiate and how she is suddenly handed over the assignment of helping out one of the Trapp children, who was unwell, with her studies. (Unlike what the movie showed, Maria wasn’t appointed as a governess to all seven kids but just as a teacher to one.) The book continues into how her bond with the children grew, her reaction to Captain Georg’s proposal (not at all like that in the movie – sigh!), their married life in Austria, and later, their move to the USA, their singing career and general life in their new country.

It is important to keep the title in mind, because the book doesn’t offer a detailed picture of the Trapps. We do get some backstory about Captain Georg’s accomplished naval career during WWI, a barely-there mention of his first wife Agathe, and the names and some behavioural details of his seven children with Agathe. However, a deeper insight into the people is missing most of the way. As the title suggests, this memoir is not about the movie or the Trapp family but about the family’s social identity as ‘Trapp Family Singers’. The romance and other family scenes depicted in the movie gets done within the first sixty pages of this book (without any of the frivolities, of course.) The rest is all about their move to and subsequent life in the USA.

For a woman who didn’t know English until she landed in the USA, Maria seems to have mastered the language almost instantaneously. (I wonder if she had a ghost-writer for this book!) She knows the history, geography, culture and traditions of her country very well, and her pride in being an Austrian comes out strongly. Her language is mostly simple, and her writing approach is both self-deprecating and self-congratulatory, a strange combination. Her tone does get very preachy at times.

At the same time, because she is so focussed on giving us the story of the “Trapp Family Singers”, she forgets to provide necessary information about the “Trapp Family”. We don’t know the ages of most of the children, we don’t even know Maria’s origins and how she ended up in the convent. The trickiest part is the understanding of the passage of time. The story spans the years 1926 to 1947, and while Maria’s narration is linear, there are very few year references across the book. So it is not easy to figure out the exact spread of the 21 years. Moreover, though Maria was only seven years older than the eldest Trapp child – a boy named Rupert, she keeps referring to the children as ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ till the end of the book, making it tough to remember that Rupert is in his mid-thirties by the time the book comes to a close.

Some parts of this memoir haven't aged well. Maria is a product of her era, so there are references to spanking children (and not even questioning the validity of this action), multiple uses of the N word to refer to Blacks, and a strange fascination about getting to meet the "real Indians" (a reference that made me cringe.) Of her three children, she speaks fondly only of her youngest, who was her only son. We barely get any details of her older daughters. Maria also seems overly naive talking about how they were never put in camps by the Americans during WWII even though they were registered as enemy aliens, and about how the US government was fair even to outsiders such as the Polish and the Austrian immigrants. I wonder if it ever crossed her mind that *other* ethnicities such as the Japanese (even if they were Japanese-Americans) had to go forcibly into internment camps.

The second half of the book feels very repetitive. Though not like typical immigrants, the Trapp family had to go through multiple swings in their singing career before they could finally relax about their finances. The ups and downs seemed to blend into each other after a point, though I loved learning about how they made do when times were bad, and smiled at Maria’s misinterpretations of US lingo. But even when Maria speaks about good times and difficulties, the writing somehow doesn’t transform into a visual experience in my head. The description feels very bare-bones, focussing only on needed facts before jumping onto the next big event.

Maria also stresses overly on the positive experiences, and doesn’t detail a single negative anecdote about any person. I find it tough to believe that every single human being they met was helpful and supportive. No one can be that lucky! (Then again, she didn’t even have to anything negative to say about Hitler; I might have assumed that the ‘nun’ values ran strong, but most nuns I know would be the first to pass judgement on people!)

The most poignant chapter of the book is the final one, where Maria details her husband’s illness and his death in 1947. In an otherwise strictly controlled narrative, it felt like the only chapter where she allowed her heart to speak more than her head. If she had written the entire book with this much emotion, it would have been an easy 4.5 stars.

Even without intending to, this memoir reveals just how many liberties Broadway and Hollywood took with the facts. The children don’t correspond in age and gender. Liesl from the movie is entirely fictional, as is Rolf. The Captain and Maria had a 25-year age gap; he was 47 and she just 22 when they got married – conveniently not mentioned in the movie. The details of their escape from Austria are not just incorrect but also incomplete. (Maria had two children of her own when they escaped; it wasn’t immediately after her marriage as the movie seemed to suggest.)

The movie also turned the Georg-Maria relationship into a typical enemies-to-lovers romance, though it was actually a marriage of convenience that slowly grew towards mutual respect and love. The biggest injustice has been done to Captain Georg, whom the movie portrays as a strict disciplinarian who doesn’t even allow his children to sing. His real-life counterpart seems to have been a loving father, though not very vociferous in his display of emotions, as was the norm among privileged men then. Basically, if you considered the movie true to life, you will be very disappointed. (Then again, it is a Hollywood movie; you ought to have known better!)

One dominant aspect in this book that is totally missing in the movie is the strong element of faith. (This might be annoying to those who don’t like religious content in their books.) Though Maria had to give up on her dream of becoming a nun, she was much rooted in her Catholic beliefs till the end. Even the Trapps were practising Christians. So the memoir has many references to their belief system, the power of prayer, the idea of trusting God with our lives, and so on. I did like some of these details, such as the Austrian traditions at Christmastime.

All in all, despite certain issues, this is still an informative read, though it could have been far better written. If you are a fan of the movie and want to know the truth about the family behind the characters, this memoir might serve you well, though that part is restricted to the first 20%. Most of the rest is fairly easy-going and somewhat monotonous, except for the final chapter.

No regrets reading it, but no repeat value. Rounding up wherever applicable for sentimental nostalgia.

Now I am even more curious to get to Michelle Moran’s book and learn more about the distortions made by Hollywood in bringing this life story to screen. I know that it will be better written, considering that its author is actually a professional writer, not someone like Maria who wrote this account after her friends convinced her to. I just hope the research is accurate as well. Fingers crossed!