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A review by sarahanne8382
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
4.0
I finished this book a few days ago, and I still don't know my reaction to it other than the fact that I liked it. It was one of those really personal stories, where you start thinking about the narrator as a real person and forget to evaluate it as a piece of fiction. Throw in the fact the story is loosely based on the life of Laura Bush, wife of our 43rd president, and it's even harder to remember that this is a novel.
I do want to stress that this story only loosely follows the events of Laura Bush's life. That's why our main character is named Alice Blackwell and was born in Wisconsin instead of Texas. She does marry a man who's considered the black sheep of his politically & economically successful family, who later goes on to own a baseball team, become governor of his home state, and then President of the United States, though.
In this book Sittenfeld tries to explain why one of the most liked First Ladies was married to one of the least liked Presidents by letting her proxy for the normally reticent Mrs. Bush tell her life story. It's a very thoughtful story & I found myself identifying with Alice more times than I could count in the first 20 pages (not to mention her stint as a librarian). Alice is one of those people that everyone likes, but a lot of people don't remember. She doesn't say a lot, but what she does say is always proper and polite. She's always doing the right thing, even if that means keeping her political views to herself when she doesn't agree with her husband.
Having just watched the movie W, they both fall into the George W. Bush apologist, sort-of camp. Both try to make an argument for not hating a President liberals find repugnant, but since both were created by liberals, they can't completey hide their distate for the man, so he's still seen as seriously flawed in both pieces, but American Wife is significantly more coherent and engaging.
I do want to stress that this story only loosely follows the events of Laura Bush's life. That's why our main character is named Alice Blackwell and was born in Wisconsin instead of Texas. She does marry a man who's considered the black sheep of his politically & economically successful family, who later goes on to own a baseball team, become governor of his home state, and then President of the United States, though.
In this book Sittenfeld tries to explain why one of the most liked First Ladies was married to one of the least liked Presidents by letting her proxy for the normally reticent Mrs. Bush tell her life story. It's a very thoughtful story & I found myself identifying with Alice more times than I could count in the first 20 pages (not to mention her stint as a librarian). Alice is one of those people that everyone likes, but a lot of people don't remember. She doesn't say a lot, but what she does say is always proper and polite. She's always doing the right thing, even if that means keeping her political views to herself when she doesn't agree with her husband.
Having just watched the movie W, they both fall into the George W. Bush apologist, sort-of camp. Both try to make an argument for not hating a President liberals find repugnant, but since both were created by liberals, they can't completey hide their distate for the man, so he's still seen as seriously flawed in both pieces, but American Wife is significantly more coherent and engaging.