American Wife

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American Wife

By: Curtis Sittenfeld

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin

In the year 2000, in the closest election in American history, Alice Blackwell's husband becomes president of the United States. Their time in the White House proves to be heady, tumultuous, and controversial.

But it is Alice's own story - that of a kind, bookish, only child born in the 1940s Midwest who comes to inhabit a life of dizzying wealth and power - that is itself remarkable. Alice candidly describes her small-town upbringing, and the tragedy that shaped her identity; she recalls her early adulthood as a librarian, and her surprising courtship with the man who swept her off her feet; she tells of the crisis that almost ended their marriage; and she confides the privileges and difficulties of being first lady, a role that is uniquely cloistered and public, secretive and exposed.

In Alice Blackwell, Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is not a novel about politics. It is a gorgeously written novel that weaves race, class, fate and wealth into a brilliant tapestry. It is a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare.

Fiction

Genre Fiction

Literary Fiction

Political

Women's Fiction

Marriage

Inspiring

Tear-jerking

Thought-Provoking

American History

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I loved every moment of this book. As a passionate socialist and critic of the War On Terror, I was cautious. I vehemently disagreed with Gorge W Bush and Tony Blair, and doubted that I would find sympathy for Laura Bush. However, I had enjoyed Rodham so much, I decided to trust the writer and she did not let me down.
The book is so sensitively written, the protagonist asks enormous questions of herself and her husband. It is so refreshing to read the reflections of women who choose difficult men and stand by their controversial decisions. These voices need to be heard. I found myself respecting the wives of world leaders in a new way. Often thrust into lives they did not choose, it helps me to think that they are this self aware.

Who knows whether this is an accurate reflection or whether these women get caught up in their husbands' hubris, but it has helped me to read what the reality might be like.
I found the book profoundly moving and it restores a little of my faith in the world of politics.

Whether any true stateswomen and statesmen still exist, remains a question. I like the notion that there might be, though.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I can't wait to read my next Curtis Sittenfeld novel.