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American Wife
A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice Lindgren has no idea that she will one day end up in the White House, married to the president. In her small Wisconsin hometown, she learns the virtues of politeness, but a tragic accident when she is seventeen shatters her identity and changes the trajectory of her life. More than a decade later, when the charismatic son...more
Paperback, 565 pages
Published
February 10th 2009
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
(first published 2008)
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Kate Merriman
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This book is a fabulous read -- and as far as I can gather, inspired by a sentiment I can understand well: Fascination with Laura Bush. I certainly don't share enough fascination to have written a novel about her, but even from my own experience of meeting her VERY briefly, she is incredibly NICE. So the premise grabbed my attention.
In the novel, this Laura-esque character is a bit of a contradiction -- a true free thinker and yet an obedient wife and first lady. At times it is hard...more
In the novel, this Laura-esque character is a bit of a contradiction -- a true free thinker and yet an obedient wife and first lady. At times it is hard...more
As I said in my comments when I posted this book to my "Currently Reading" list, I've "never read Curtis before but an semi-obsessed with novels about First Ladies and First Daughters. Plus, I love wedding gowns."
That's right, I was suckered in by the wedding gown! But come on -- it's a luscious dress, like a mound of whipped cream sprinkled with sugar. And truly, when I had a chance to read the ARE, I couldn't say no, since I have heard only good things about Cur...more
That's right, I was suckered in by the wedding gown! But come on -- it's a luscious dress, like a mound of whipped cream sprinkled with sugar. And truly, when I had a chance to read the ARE, I couldn't say no, since I have heard only good things about Cur...more
You never know what goes on behind closed doors. And after reading American Wife, we still don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but it sure is riveting to read what might. When the subject is married to a good-time Charlie (Charlie Blackwell in this case) from a prominent political family, who purchased a Major League baseball team, served as a Republican governor, then won a contested election to become a two-term President . . . well, it all sounds very familiar. The mix of truth an...more
A character-driven story about Alice Blackwell, a small town girl who meets and falls in love with a rising Republican hot-shot from her home state of Wisconsin. The strength of this story comes from the first-person narration by Alice and the way the story is told. Each of the four sections of the story are defined by a place Alice lives and she tells the story of not only what's going on in her life at the time, but fills in certain details to help clue you in on the overall pattern of her l...more
I loved Curtis Sittenfeld's debut novel, Prep. And while I wasn't thrilled when I discovered that the main character of this book was based upon Laura Bush, I remembered how brilliantly Ms. Sittenfeld crafted the coming of age story of her young protagonist in Prep. I suspected that her treatment of Laura Bush masquerading as Alice Lindgren Blackwell would be equally engaging. For the greater part of the book, I was not disappointed. An American Wife proved to be a refreshingly modern rendition ...more
This book got four stars from me because I agree with most of the reviews (not here; "out there"): The first three sections (about 3/4 of the book) were good and interesting but the fourth section just didn't work as well. It was like being brought up short: "Oh yeah...she's the First Lady. Damn."
Of course it's the parallel to that other First Lady that has people reading this book but it's in the first three sections that Sittenfeld creates this interesting and c...more
Of course it's the parallel to that other First Lady that has people reading this book but it's in the first three sections that Sittenfeld creates this interesting and c...more
This is one of the most thought-provoking and absorbing books I have read in a while. (I'm pretty sure I thought about it in my sleep.) First, there's the fact that it's loosely based on the life of Laura Bush; second, there's the fact that Curtis Sittenfeld has a staggering talent for making characters absolutely real (even when they aren't real already; see PREP).
Sittenfeld gives so much insight into Alice Blackwell, and when you, as the reader, understand in such a close and deta...more
Sittenfeld gives so much insight into Alice Blackwell, and when you, as the reader, understand in such a close and deta...more
Wow. One of the best books I've read this year.
Just forget what you might have heard about this book being a mirror of the life of Laura Bush (it is, but ...), it's really about the life of one woman, and purely on its own merits as a novel, it’s moving, thoughtful and wonderfully wrought.
The author gives Alice (and Charlie) complexity, hopes and fears — and lives, even if their lives aren’t like ours. She empathetically details the burdens and isolation of being famous, the doubts ...more
Just forget what you might have heard about this book being a mirror of the life of Laura Bush (it is, but ...), it's really about the life of one woman, and purely on its own merits as a novel, it’s moving, thoughtful and wonderfully wrought.
The author gives Alice (and Charlie) complexity, hopes and fears — and lives, even if their lives aren’t like ours. She empathetically details the burdens and isolation of being famous, the doubts ...more
The first 439 pages of this novel merit 5 stars. Alas! When our American wife makes it to the White House, the story falls flat on its face.
Anyway, this is the engrossing (and somewhat trashy) tale of Alice Lindgren Blackwell, future first lady. Growing up in a small Wisconsin town, Alice has a good life. She is an only child who lives with her mother, father, and grandmother. Her father has a job at the bank, her mother is the perfect housewife, and her grandmother is an eccent...more
Anyway, this is the engrossing (and somewhat trashy) tale of Alice Lindgren Blackwell, future first lady. Growing up in a small Wisconsin town, Alice has a good life. She is an only child who lives with her mother, father, and grandmother. Her father has a job at the bank, her mother is the perfect housewife, and her grandmother is an eccent...more
Three stars is really more of an average. Four stars for the first half, and two for the last half.
However, when reading the first chunk of the book, I was excited, engaged, engrossed, and believed that Sittenfeld had pulled off something epic here, a truly staggering undertaking.
I'm interested to see what the reviews will have to say. God knows there have been books with less strong beginnings and worse endings lauded as excellent. (Indecision, I'm lookin' at you!) I h...more
However, when reading the first chunk of the book, I was excited, engaged, engrossed, and believed that Sittenfeld had pulled off something epic here, a truly staggering undertaking.
I'm interested to see what the reviews will have to say. God knows there have been books with less strong beginnings and worse endings lauded as excellent. (Indecision, I'm lookin' at you!) I h...more
Jennifer
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review of another edition
Recommended to Jennifer by:
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This thinly veiled fictional account of Laura Bush was absolutely fantastic. I'm sure the First Lady will be embarrassed by certain juicy, fabricated events, but all in all, I found this to be a love letter to her from the author, who claims to be a huge Laura Bush groupie. Sittenfeld is a true master of character development and this is some of the best fiction I've read in awhile--I couldn't put it down and stayed up way too late reading it.
Rarely am I so repulsed by a book while still able to honestly say that it wasn't completely awful. I can't ignore the fact that Curtis Sittenfeld (a woman by the way. I didn't look at the picture in the book jacket and had a male author writing this in my head for well over half the book) creates one of the most interesting and well-developed characters, Alice Blackwell, for a novel that I have read in a while. The creepy part of that is she modeled Alice after Laura Bush, flagrantly so, and I'...more
Reprinted from this review at my blog. Curtis Sittenfeld's new book American Wife has certainly received a lot of buzz, and it's not even officially out until 2 September. It doesn't take a genius to see why. It's a thinly disguised ripped from the headlines take on the life of Laura Bush. Some things have been changed: the Bushes are the Blackwells, the family is from Wisconsin, the elder Blackwell never made it to the White House as President, and more. But all the major events in Laura Bush's...more
I'm surprised, but so far I *really* like this. The main character is very compelling and I love the grandmother. More soon....
9/30: The first chapters are definitely the best, and my biggest problem with this novel is all the TELLING instead of SHOWING. There was so much rumination, explanation, summary, etc. that it started driving me crazy, and the last 150 pages were tough to get through. It needed more scenes, action, dialogue.
Also, how did the fairly interes...more
9/30: The first chapters are definitely the best, and my biggest problem with this novel is all the TELLING instead of SHOWING. There was so much rumination, explanation, summary, etc. that it started driving me crazy, and the last 150 pages were tough to get through. It needed more scenes, action, dialogue.
Also, how did the fairly interes...more
I only read through about page 400 of this book and I don't anticipate finishing it. I agree with the majority of other reviewers that the first part is much stronger than, well, than the portion of the rest of the book that I got through at least. I thought the opening scene was nearly perfect and there were other interesting descriptions or plot developments too, but I found the narrator as an adult unbearable. I'm pretty sure that we're supposed to find her interesting and intelligent and lik...more
I always think I should like Curtis Sittenfeld, and then I'm always disappointed. The first 150 pages - the part set at Alice's childhood home - were true to form (really, I think Sittenfeld should avoid retrospective narratives of adolescence - they're kind of painful, and this one wasn't an exception, filled as it was with horribly annoying, all-knowing reminiscences and moralizing tag lines to chapters), as were the final 100 or so set at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. (too politically conscious with...more
I really liked this book. It's written in the first person, and I can't remember the last book I read that was, and that helped forge an intimacy with the main character. You all know, I'm sure, that this a fictionalized life of Laura Bush. Reading this, you only hope the real person is as much like this character as possible. This made up story really gives you a feel for what Laura Bush saw in her husband when they first met, and the thinly veiled portraits of Bush family members and wholl...more
As in Prep, Sittenfeld's insightful first novel, the narrator of American Wife is a highly analytical outsider. This time however, she is a fictionalized Laura Bush. Yes, this is sort of cheesy. But it is also amazing. Her childhood and adolescence and love affair with "Charlie," the thinly veiled George Bush all feel plausible. The last section, trying to explain how a former librarian with Democratic leanings who had lived in Madison of all places, could rationalize her marriage...more
Well,
This book was SUCH a disappointment. I loved Prep. I thought Sittenfeld was a master of nuance and capturing the excruciating sensitivity to every social nuance that is being a high school student. However, this book's main character, based on Laura Bush, is extremely uninteresting. I just never liked being inside her head, but I stubbornly kept reading. Also, the sex scenes were difficult to read because I kept having to imagine George W and Laura, and it was just too much for me. A...more
This book was SUCH a disappointment. I loved Prep. I thought Sittenfeld was a master of nuance and capturing the excruciating sensitivity to every social nuance that is being a high school student. However, this book's main character, based on Laura Bush, is extremely uninteresting. I just never liked being inside her head, but I stubbornly kept reading. Also, the sex scenes were difficult to read because I kept having to imagine George W and Laura, and it was just too much for me. A...more
My aunt started this, couldn't really deal with the sex scenes, and gave it to my mother. My mother started this, couldn't really deal with the sex scenes, and gave it to me.
So far? I'm okay with the sex scenes. ;-)
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I really enjoyed this. The ending's not very satisfying, but it can't be, given the book's conceit (we're supposed to have Laura Bush in mind the whole time), so I'm okay with that. Well written. Nice small, human moments that offered me an immedia...more
So far? I'm okay with the sex scenes. ;-)
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I really enjoyed this. The ending's not very satisfying, but it can't be, given the book's conceit (we're supposed to have Laura Bush in mind the whole time), so I'm okay with that. Well written. Nice small, human moments that offered me an immedia...more
I absolutely loved this book up until the very, very end (as in, the last page or two) when I felt it got totally preachy and not in a way I tend to agree with. However, that being said, this book was amazing. I completely intend to re-read this book as soon as I can (it's way too long for me to re-read on a whim), and before I do, I plan on reading some of the references noted by the author. I'm very interested to read how the characters interact with Alice and Charlie prior to becoming famo...more
I absolutely adored this book. I had originally heard about it from a co-worker and was so excited to receive an advanced readers copy! From start to finish, I was hooked. I knew going into it that Alice Blackwell was supposedly based on Laura Bush and that made the whole experience more fascinating as I tried to decipher what was real and what was fiction.
I highly recommend this book!!
I highly recommend this book!!
While this book was, honestly, nothing how I pictured it before I started, I really loved it. I thought that the decision to not break it into chapters made it seem seamless and her life just kind of flowed. I loved the 'confessional' feel that it had to it.
The whole time, I was thinking about how it makes me want to read a book about Laura Bush because I know so little about her. I couldn't distinguish what was taken from life and what was purely fictional. I also couldn't help won...more
The whole time, I was thinking about how it makes me want to read a book about Laura Bush because I know so little about her. I couldn't distinguish what was taken from life and what was purely fictional. I also couldn't help won...more
Strange to read a novel that is perfectly well executed, even rather brilliantly done in terms of its attention to detail, plot and character development, at the same time that it is also entirely predictable. Everything seems to come at you exactly as and when you might have expected it to. I feel like I'm watching a gameshow in which I not only know all the answers, I know them before the questions have even been posed. It's as if this novel came out of the high-end novel factory. It's rea...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I LOVED this book. Sittenfeld, a self-described “staunch liberal,” read a biography on Laura Bush and found her to be absolutely fascinating and much more complex than most people realize. So in trying to understand her better, she wrote a fictional retelling of her life, and I thought she just nailed it on the head. I felt not only like i was walking in Laura Bush's shoes, but living in her skin. Told in first person, the story of Alice Lindgren Blackwell intimately follows the life of Laur...more
I truly enjoyed reading this book and did so voraciously. Like many others who read it, I'd agree that the first third was much stronger than the other two, with the last particularly weak.
It's no spoiler though to say that this book is inspired by Laura Bush's life and is, at least initially, what held me in its thrall. However, what emerged more than anything were many of the same themes that Sittenfeld worked over in "Prep." And just as I felt when I reached the end of...more
It's no spoiler though to say that this book is inspired by Laura Bush's life and is, at least initially, what held me in its thrall. However, what emerged more than anything were many of the same themes that Sittenfeld worked over in "Prep." And just as I felt when I reached the end of...more
My main problem with this book was that it was REALLY long. Usually that is the sort of comment that you associate with a book that is boring and not worth continuing. That was not the case with American Wife, which I was simultaneously plodding through and enjoying for pretty much the entire months of February and March. Perhaps for a milestone-marker like me, not having chapters was a major downfall of this book. Though in retrospect, my experience of the book is not unlike the character of Al...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Wife is outrageous (not in a good way) | 2 | 64 | Jun 22, 2011 06:44pm | |
| A Divine Madness: January 2009 - American Wife | 110 | 7 | Jan 18, 2011 09:12am |
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Curtis Sittenfeld is the author of the bestselling novels American Wife, Prep, and The Man of My Dreams, which are being translated into twenty-five languages. Prep also was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of 2005 by The New York Times, nominated for the UK's Orange Prize, and optioned by Paramount Pictures. Curtis won the Seventeen magazine fiction writing contest in 1992, at age sixteen, and...more
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“To remain alone did not seem to me a terrible fate, no worse than being falsely joined to another person.”
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“To think of the Midwest as a whole as anything other than beautiful is to ignore the extraordinary power of the land. The lushness of the grass and trees in August, the roll of the hills (far less of the Midwest is flat than outsiders seem to imagine), the rich smell of soil, the evening sunlight over a field of wheat, or the crickets chirping at dusk on a residential street: All of it, it has always made me feel at peace. There is room to breathe, there is a realness of place. The seasons are extreme, but they pass and return, pass and return, and the world seems far steadier than it does from the vantage point of a coastal city.
Certainly picturesque towns can be found in New England or California or the Pacific Northwest, but I can't shake the sense that they're too picturesque. On the East Coast, especially, these places seem to me aggressively quaint, unbecomingly smug, and even xenophobic, downright paranoid in their wariness of those who might somehow infringe upon the local charm. I suspect this wariness is tied to the high cost of real estate, the fear that there might not be enough space or money and what there is of both must be clung to and defended. The West Coast, I think, has a similar self-regard...and a beauty that I can't help seeing as show-offy. But the Midwest: It is quietly lovely, not preening with the need to have its attributes remarked on. It is the place I am calmest and most myself.”
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Certainly picturesque towns can be found in New England or California or the Pacific Northwest, but I can't shake the sense that they're too picturesque. On the East Coast, especially, these places seem to me aggressively quaint, unbecomingly smug, and even xenophobic, downright paranoid in their wariness of those who might somehow infringe upon the local charm. I suspect this wariness is tied to the high cost of real estate, the fear that there might not be enough space or money and what there is of both must be clung to and defended. The West Coast, I think, has a similar self-regard...and a beauty that I can't help seeing as show-offy. But the Midwest: It is quietly lovely, not preening with the need to have its attributes remarked on. It is the place I am calmest and most myself.”
