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American Wife: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $14.98
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Rating:  105 reviews
Sales Rank: 332
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 100 more reviews...
 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!
 could have been much shorter November 30, 2008
Ocean Breeze (Dawsonville, GA USA)
I though the book was ok. After reading the cover, I couldn't wait to start reading it. By the end, I just couldn't wait to be finished. There was way too much extra stuff that didn't add to the story and could have been deleted. If it had been 200 pages shorter, I would have liked it much better. I probably would not recommend it to a friend.
American Wife November 23, 2008
Marsha J. Elliott (New City, NY)
Curtis is a gifted writer. The peek inside the life of a "first lady" was thought-provoking and a very entertaining read.
Poignant Portrayal of a Fictional First Lady November 23, 2008
Linda Holman (Chatsworth, CA United States)
I have never read a book by this author before, Curtis Sittenfeld, and did not know she is a woman...and I think it takes a woman to "get" all the emotions a female goes through, from adolescence to "old" age.
This book is a fictional account of a woman, Alice Blackwell, who grew up in the small town of Riley, Wisconsin. The description of her town made me yearn for the simpler times, when you could leave your door unlocked and know all your neighbor's names.
The story takes the reader on a journey to the four main addresses Alice Blackwell lived in throughout her life, culminating at the White House. I have always been fascinated with anything having to do with the road to the White House, and I couldn't wait to get to this part of the book. I had to really exercise patience to read the earlier parts of the story and I'm glad I did, as I enjoyed reading about the events that made this character the woman she turned out to be.
This is a well-written novel and I would recommend it highly.
Fiction Probably Better than Fact November 22, 2008
lovetoread (Seattle)
Very recently I read Ann Gerhart's "The Perfect Wife: The Life and Times of Laura Bush." Then I saw Oliver Stone's movie "W." And finally I read
"American Wife: A Novel." Who knew I would read so much about the Bushes, of whom I am no fan. However, since Laura Bush seems like such a nice person and also such a blank page, she does lend herself to people making up their own sense of her. I read the biography to try to understand her. It seemed to be a fair and honest look at Laura Bush. I really enjoyed it. I learned many things about her that I did not know. Facts. But I came away understanding her very little. Although I wanted to believe she had this interesting, liberal (or somewhat liberal) inner life, and couldn't possibly be in political accord with her husband, I came away from the biography believing "what you see is what's really there."
It took Sittenfield's fictional Laura/Alice to reveal her. Of course, Sittenfield only imagines what Laura's inner life is like, but because she tracks enough of many liberals' wishes about Laura and known facts about Laura and the Bush family, she makes her/them plausible and convincing. The relationships in the Bush family are very entertaining. I found the book hard to put down. Of course I knew the plot line, but it was interesting to see how Sittenfield filled in the details. She has developed Alice/Laura into a believable, understandable character (although I do agree with other reviewers that the last section was not as well developed and maybe that's because we know those events didn't happen and only wish they would have) and has not quite convinced us that Alice's husband could have been elected President. And who of us can actually believe that Laura's husband could be elected?
The biography, the movie, and the novel are getting mushed together in my head, although I do try to separate fact and fiction. I give the biography and the novel four stars out of five. The movie about three.
It took
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