American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband's presidency, Alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House--and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, "almost in opposition to itself."A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice learned the virtues of politeness early on from her stolid parents and small Wisconsin hometown. But a tragic accident when she was seventeen shattered her identity and made her understand the fragility of life and the tenuousness of luck. So more than a decade later, when she met boisterous, charismatic Charlie Blackwell, she hardly gave him a second look: She was serious and thoughtful, and he would rather crack a joke than offer a real insight; he was the wealthy son of a bastion family of the Republican party, and she was a school librarian and registered Democrat. Comfortable in her quiet and unassuming life, she felt inured to his charms. And then, much to her surprise, Alice fell for Charlie.As Alice learns to make her way amid the clannish energy and smug confidence of the Blackwell family, navigating the strange rituals of their country club and summer estate, she remains uneasy with her newfound good fortune. And when Charlie eventually becomes President, Alice is thrust into a position she did not seek--one of power and influence, privilege and responsibility. As Charlie's tumultuous and controversial second term in the White House wears on, Alice must face contradictions years in the making: How can she both love and fundamentally disagree with her husband? How complicit has she been in the trajectory of her own life? What should she do when her private beliefs run against her public persona?In Alice Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is a gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and the exigencies of fate into a brilliant tapestry--a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare.Praise for American Wife"Curtis Sittenfeld is an amazing writer, and American Wife is a brave and moving novel about the intersection of private and public life in America. Ambitious and humble at the same time, Sittenfeld refuses to trivialize or simplify people, whether real or imagined." --Richard Russo"What a remarkable (and brave) thing: a compassionate, illuminating, and beautifully rendered portrait of a fictional Republican first lady with a life and husband very much like our actual Republican first lady's. Curtis Sittenfeld has written a novel as impressive as it is improbable."--Kurt AndersenFrom the Hardcover edition.

I liked this, though I don't know if it'll be a reread like [b:Prep 9844 Prep A Novel Curtis Sittenfeld http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166071934s/9844.jpg 2317177] is for me. I like Alice as a character, and was able to separate her from Laura Bush, but Charlie was always George W. Bush no matter what, and I think my feelings about him got in the way of my being able to appreciate the actual character. Alice is essentially passive, which gets frustrating, but the book acknowledges that.

I picked up this book because I loved Eligible by the same author and this one seemed interesting. I had no idea this was a fiction based on the life of Laura Bush. Being quite unknown about the history of the Bush family, I treated this book just like any fiction novel. The book is divided into four sections each reflecting on a time in the life of our protagonist. The first couple of sections are interesting where we see the evolution of a young woman into a very passionate librarian. Alice's relationship with her family, especially her grandmother is well explored. There is an incident that happens in her adolescence which changes her a lot and it looks like the guilt determines all her actions in the future.

When we meet her as a librarian in her thirties, she seems confident in herself and I expected she would do something important with her life because she had so much potential. Then she meets her future husband and that is where the story goes off the rails. Charles is exactly opposite to her in every way and his fun and easy nature is probably why she falls for him. However, he is an aspiring politician and she disagrees completely with his ideology. He doesn't respect her positions or even seems interested in listening to her but thinks that she should be okay with his opinions because they are married. Even though she is an educated and qualified woman, she gives up her job and everything about herself for her marriage.

It would be okay if she did all this for the sake of love but you can't shake the feeling that she marries him and all her subsequent decisions in her life are based on her determination that she doesn't deserve anything better because of what happened in her teens. This would still be okay if her decisions only affect her but her total support of her husband in his political career surely does affect many more people, probably many adversely. All the justifications that she seems to be giving herself to believe that she is doing the right thing just feel like excuses and I can't sympathize with her anymore. Even her little rebellion of not voting for Charles and not telling him about it might be enough of a justification to her for her decades of supporting an unworthy politician but it just antagonizes me more. I just can't believe she being a liberal would support her husband who doesn't believe in a woman's right to choose and most other women's rights. Once I got to know about him, it gets difficult to like the book anymore. I don't know if I can call this book good writing because at the end, all I remember is I was disappointed with the protagonist.

Interesting – I learned some things about former First Lady Laura Bush I hadn't known, and liked her better. After becoming interested in her from reading this book I read a biography on her and was amazed at how this novel followed real life so closely.