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American Wife: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
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Rating:  109 reviews
Sales Rank: 277
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 576
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.7
ISBN: 1400064759
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781400064755
ASIN: 1400064759
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
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Product Description
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 Andersen
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| Customer Reviews: Read 104 more reviews...
 A mixed bag December 4, 2008
N. B. Kennedy (Hopewell, NJ USA)
What I found most admirable about this book is how the author created Alice Lindgren as a completely consistent character. Everything she does and thinks is a logical extension of who she is. The scene in which Alice contemplates writing a thank-you note to the doctor who performed her abortion made me laugh out loud. It's exactly the kind of thinking that dogs you when your parents have brought you up in a certain way.
Actually, Alice's actions in the aftermath of the car accident are so wildly out of character that you have to believe that grief completely derails a person. I do find it believable that she married someone who was her complete opposite. Remember back to some of your early boyfriends or girlfriends.
I agree with many reviewers that the last section of the book is tedious in the extreme. Far too much thinking and too little action. I didn't really care whether Alice felt she was complicit in her husband's actions as president. The role of first spouse is too peripheral to give this line of thinking any weight.
And count me in as one of those readers who didn't care for the overabundance of minutely detailed bodily functions in the book, both in deed and in dialog. I felt sullied by it all. At least it helped me understand how Alice felt when she left Charlie. Who could stand to live in that kind of atmosphere day in and day out?
That's one reason I didn't find the author's depiction of Charlie's conversion believable. I don't think the author understands how completely a person changes when they decide to let Christ clean up their life. It isn't only a person's actions that change, but thoughts and words, too. I was looking forward to some relief from the crude dialog and distasteful references, but nope. It persists to the end.
I almost gave up on this book a third of the way in. It's far too long. I tended to read only the topic sentence of a paragraph and then skip ahead. But, of course, I'm one of those people who was brought up to dutifully finish what you start. Next time, I'll listen to my inner Alice and take off when I feel I need to for my sanity's sake.
 Worst Book I have ever read December 4, 2008
Liza (Oregon)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the only book that I wish I would have never picked up. If you are a liberal abortion rights activist that despises wealthy people and has no use for religion you may enjoy it more. I portrays Laura Bush as a self righteous snob. It portrays her husband as a weak, dim witted playboy. It portrays his family as racist, self absorbed and cruel. I see no entertainment value in tearing up good people who love their country. I know this is a work of fiction based loosely on Laura Bush's life but as terrible as they were all portrayed I believe it is slander.
 Impeccable Writing Style, Absorbing Story December 3, 2008
Emilywutsa
Curtis Sittenfeld is such a splendid writer, I cannot get enough of her. Her thoughts are provoking and allow you a small vacation as you slip into this absorbing and beautifully written novel. I've never stopped to ponder so much about the life of our First Lady and I thank Sittenfeld for her encourgement. This is must read for anyone who has ever looked around and wondered how exactly you got to your current post in life.
 Recommended December 2, 2008
E. Brenner
I agree with many other readers -- the beginning and middle definitely trumped the last section as far as readability and interest go. Perhaps that's because we learn far more about Alice in the first two sections, and that is what kept my attention throughout. I really only read the end to see how Ms Sittenfeld would end the book. I hear and read enough about politics in my daily life, and while this novel is about a First Lady, I would rather read about the woman and not so much the politics.
However I think Ms Sittenfeld did a terrific job with this book. I figured I would like it because I enjoy the author's understated writing style. As with her two previous novels, the prose is funny yet subtle and painfully true at times.
I recommend!
Thought I'd Hate It November 30, 2008
Honor Bret Harte (California)
Read it on the Kindle, only bought it because it was the first book on the Kindle bestseller list that I'd had any previous interest in. Bought it more to figure out how to use the Kindle than for any other reason. It is fantastic. The oddness of it - the fact that is is so clearly inspired by the life of a famous and famously private person, and yet is clearly fiction - never goes away, and indeed composes part of its strangely compelling quality. The book is often unseemly, not just in its many depictions of sex and other bodily intimacies, but in the sense of intrusion that comes with them. But what cannot be denied is the prose, the sense of place, the creation both of a fully realized fictional character and of a plausible psychological portrait of someone who is in front of us nearly ever day, yet who had never once revealed herself in any meaningful or personal way to her public. The book is creepy; it often seems that writer and reader are doing something they shouldn't: entering into an extended fantasy, often luridly physical, about a person who clearly wants not to be thought about overmuch in the first place, let alone to be fantasized about. But as a work of art, the book is a success, and as a pleasure it is undeniable. I have been recommending it to everyone I know, and while I'm certain it will raise hackles, I doubt anyone will leave it un-finsihed. Read it!
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