It always amazes me when Sittenfeld's novels are referred to as "beach books". I wonder if the people who say that have actually read her work, or if they automatically assume that any book about the lives of women must automatically be low-brow chick lit. American Wife, like its predecessor Prep, is anything but low-brow. It is a complex, moving portrait of a young woman--a polite children's librarian with quietly left-leaning politics who marries a charismatic, if buffoonish man from a wealthy family who becomes an unpopular president stuck in a quagmire of an unpopular war.

Sound familiar? Of course, Sittenfeld's heroine is named Alice Lindgren, not Laura Welch. And the man she marries is Charlie Blackwell, not George Bush, but all too true details of the real Laura Bush's life are woven into the narrative remind the reader what the thesis of this fictional novel is REALLY about. What must it be like to have married a man whose politics you disagree with--especially if that man's livelihood is politics. Do you speak out? Do you stay quiet and just be a supportive wife? Do you--gasp--vote against him in both elections?

American Wife isn't all about Alice Lindgren's life as the president's wife--that section only comprises maybe a fourth of the novel. The entire first third describes Alice's youth and teen years, during which the most defining moment of her life occurs: during the summer before her senior year in high school, Alice runs a stop sign on the way to a party and kills a classmate, Andrew, a boy she has a crush on. This is something that actually happened to the real Laura Bush, and it becomes the crux of the entire novel. Although Sittenfeld describes, and later brings up the accident in only a handful of pages, it is the singular event on which the entire book pivots. The unanswered question is, if Alice had not killed Andrew; if they had gone on to date and even marry, would her life have been completely different? The fact that Alice ends up Alice Blackwell seems at times to be a mistake. Alice feels, deep inside, she should have never become the first lady. Her rightful place was to be a children's librarian in Wisconsin and married to her high school sweetheart--not as the incredibly beloved wife of an incredibly incompetent president.

Sittenfeld's novel is filled with restrained emotion and longing, embodied by the quiet, polite, intelligent, and secretly conflicted main character. Like Sittenfeld's other books, the main character is likable enough, but not charismatic. Sittenfeld disarms the reader by creating heroines that come off as a bit boring--heroines that observe more than act--but ultimately seem more real than grandiose, larger than life characters seen in other works of fiction. In this way, Sittenfeld is able to dissect life and relationships in ways that other authors cannot. She doesn't force the reader to like her characters.

In American Wife, Sittenfeld attempts to shed light of what Laura Bush's inner life must have been like before and during George W. Bush's reign. Does she succeed? Who knows. But the novel, though at times melodramatic and its first lady a little too apologetic, never seems untrue. In any case, fiction often rings more true than the reality we think we see in biographies and the news everyday. Maybe Sittenfeld has created a portrait of Laura Bush truer than Laura Bush herself would like to admit. ( )

A fictionalized biography of Laura Bush. The novel had me turning pages as fast as I could until Charley's "conversion". The final section seemed hurried and contrived, esp. w/Dena and Pete. Oh, and what about the doctor mysteriously and suddenly dying. The soul-searching that Laura did regarding the war and also if she could have been a more dynamic first lady seemed genuine. ( )

My mum gave the book to me because the main character is a librarian. As it turns out she is based on/inspired by Laura Bush. I thought I wouldn't like it, because I disagree with just about anything her husband ever said or did. But the book is extremely well written and almost made me cry by page 150.

The main character, Alice Blackwell, couldn't be more different from me. She is considerate, polite, private, docile, and shy to the point of being dull. Even though I probably would not want to spend an evening talking to her, I really enjoyed the story she was telling and thought it interesting how her affectionate storytelling even made her husband, who is based on G. W. Bush, seem less obnoxious.

I liked how the story is told in little anecdotes about Alice Blackwell's life that lead to the point she wants to make or the similarity she wants to point out. The only time this didn't work for me at all is when she compares her using the wrong door and accidentally walking out of the room and not wanting to admit her mistake and go back to her husband's refusal to withdraw troops from a Irak. Eating dinner with a full bladder does not compare to a lost war.
My other problem with the book are the quite explicit sex scenes that always reminded me that this is something I never wanted to consider about George W. and Laura Bush. No, thanks. ( )

For me, Curtis Sittenfeld is developing into one of the best contemporary American writers; American Wife cements this opinion. The life of fictional Alice Lingren drapes nicely on the real-life framework of Laura Bush's life, playing on the silences, controversies and contradictions of the latter to create an interesting and compelling portrait of what it might be like to be the wife of such a prominent politician (as a non-American, I view the awe surrounding the presidency with a similar bemusement to that expressed by Alice). Particularly interesting is the way Sittenfeld explores the (somewhat dubious) possibility of the president's wife being able to separate her personal self from her self as a political entity and citizen. ( )

Read this for my personal Orange Prize reading challenge. Was prepared not to like it due to my dislike for the "boy-who-would-be-king", but it was a well-written book. Alice/Laura is presented as a woman of integrity and tolerance. It would be interesting to read one of the biographies that the author used as inspiration. ( )

Interestingly - one of the things i have started to do is after i have read the book i will come to Library Thing and click the "will you like this" button to see if they are spot on. And there have been times that they have been....and times that they have not....this time....they were spot on. I really enjoyed the book a lot. I can see the similarity between this American wife....and let's say.....another....but it was truly it's own story.....with out going into to much detail of it (as i don't read reviews to tell me about the book per se...) my only problem.....and yes...i had one problem with the book.....it felt like it copped out in the end....just a bit.....but.....that is just me....i am a fan of Sittenfeld and will continue to read what she puts out into the world! ( )

slate audio book club discussion http://www.slate.com/id/2199399/


definition of Bildungsroman : a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character

if only sittenfeld hadn't rushed the end, i would be over the moon for this book. ( )

I enjoyed this book to a point, but I really loathed the Charlie character, and I can't tell if it was because he was just really annoying or if it was because I knew he was based on George Bush. I've always liked Laura, but Alice was pretty passive and irritating--especially for a smart, well-read woman. I did read the book pretty fast, though, so it obviously held my attention. I liked Sittenfeld's other books better, but didn't hate this. ( )

Alice Lindgren is a kind bookish child born in the 1949's. She has no idea she will end up in the White House. Loosely a story of Laura Bush and George, but is overlong and wordy. Alice discovers she is married to a man she loves, but basically disagrees with. ( )

Very well written book by a great author--unfortunately I just couldn't finish the book. I think it is W. fatigue. Even in a fictionalized account I just couldn't deal with Charlie/George. He was annoying and the good wife/dumb husband thing just got so old. The premise is good though--Sittenfeld (like many of us) is trying to puzzle out how this yin-yang couple came to be--and yeah, I can see it now. But unlike Alice/Laura, the hijinks got old and I was unable/unwilling to stick it out. ( )

I bought this for the library because it was on the New York Times bestselling list and we didn't have it yet. We've had it for awhile and somewhere I picked up that it's about Laura Bush, which I hadn't realized before, so I got it and started reading it out of curiosity more than anything else.

After finishing the book...

So the entire book is more or less about how a democrat can marry a big time republican and manage to put up with his shit--even after he becomes president of the U.S. Part of the reason why she puts up with him is because of the guilt she carries for inadvertently killing a boy she was sweet on. This is where the author's creativity is on display. The author tries to image how such a death would impact a quiet, studious, only child of a respectable middle class family. I would have to read a couple of biographies about Laura Bush to compare what is true and what is not. Of course, this book is fiction and therefore just speculation on many different levels. What distresses me is that Laura Bush was a librarian before she married Bush. And I think she gives librarians and democrats a bad name. ( )

http://2manybooks2read.blogspot.com/2... ( )

We were told by the book club member who recommended this book that it was "required reading to understand the history of this century" and that it is based on Barbara Bush's life. What a disappointment! Many of us put it down after a few pages, as it is clearly NOT based on Barbara Bush's life, is a total work of fiction, and is basically junk. Some dedicated members actually finished this pulp fiction work but I'm too busy to read books that are a waste of time. ( )

Curtis Sittenfeld's novel, loosely based on the life of Laura Bush but clearly more full of fiction than reality, was interesting and frustrating at the same time. Divided into four parts that represent the major periods in Alice's life, the book explores a coming-of-age in Riley, Wisconsin, the steady life of a public school librarian, the early days of married life and then finally the mystique of the White House. The first parts of the book were definitely more engaging and better written - by the time we hit the grat denouement, I was so tired of Alice and Charlie that I couldn't have cared less.

My biggest frustration came from the face that Alice is a study in contradictions, some too implausible for me to bear. She's a well-read, intelligent woman who makes every effort never to speak for herself. She is actively passive, always holding back, soothing ruffled feathers and letting her own thoughts and needs fall by the wayside. She is a liberal Democrat who marries into a staunchly Republican family and somehow supports her husband's political ambitions.

As a complex look at marriage, loyalty, responsibility and choice, Sittenfeld's third novel succeeds and even shines. But as a story that should engage and question the reader, the book falls a bit short. Still worth the read though, if only for the voyeuristic thrill of a novel that may contain just a bit of truth! ( )

Review may contain spoiler(s), i.e. I do not consider it so, but some readers might and I don't want to spoil anyone's fun.

So here we have liberal-minded librarian Alice Lindgren telling the story of her life. She meets and marries boisterous Charlie Blackwell, who loves to make a lot of noise and thinks he's one hell of a fun Republican. Alice tells about her marriage to this man and their life together, in which Charlie has a career of sorts and Alice is busy being privileged.
American Wife is a fictionalised portrayal of Laura Bush, which in my view is not really that interesting. What I did like is the complete unreliability of the first person narrator. I didn't buy Alice's story one bit. I've read most of the reviews here, still have some to go (108 is a lot!). Oddly, virtually all reviews I did read here and there (after reading the book) take everything Alice has to say at face value. Well, that's okay for them, it doesn't work for me. Alice keeps polishing up all that's happening to make herself look sympathetic. She adds the most detailed descriptions of minutiae to distract from her heavily biased version of events. And boy, is she lucky when in the end she just in time manages to escape her final showdown.
I wouldn't have liked this book without this twist of the unreliable narrator. It's good writing and I hugely enjoyed the read. I don't know if the venom is just in this reader's eyes or actually drips from the author's pen.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld is, according to the author, 15 percent based on the life of former First Lady Laura Bush. I feel obligated to express that I am not a fan of George W. Bush’s presidency, and the quiet, submissive nature of the First Lady also bothered me. So, with this bias, I approached American Wife with much hesitation.

The story is told from the perspective of Alice Lundgren, a bookish Wisconsin teenager, who later married the boisterous Charlie Blackwell. Alice came off as intelligent, articulate and guilt-ridden throughout most of the story. She was plagued by a car accident from her teenage years, where she killed her love interest on the way to a high school party. Later, she was guilty about stealing her friend’s love interest (Charlie), Charlie’s drinking and drug use, the Blackwell family’s enormous wealth and the thousands of deaths resulting from the war that marked her husband’s administration. Sometimes, Alice acted upon her guilt and tried to make up for these situations; while other times, she kept her mouth shut.

Alice was very human, and her marriage to Charlie was quite realistic – a series of compromises and confrontations that made them a strong couple. Charlie was charismatic but needed the support of others to make decisions. He came across as rude and insulting at times, but when Alice dug her heels in (which was rare), he did concede without issue.

I will not venture to guess how accurately Sittenfeld’s characters depicted their real-life counterparts, but it did make for an interesting story. At times, American Wife was bogged down with too many details, and I wish Sittenfeld spent more time showing Alice as the governor and president’s wife. We learned so much about Alice through her younger years – I almost felt cheated not learning more about her in such public roles.

We will never know what made First Lady Laura Bush tick, but this book, if nothing else, reminds readers that we only see what the media and public relations people want you to see. Sometimes appearances are different than actuality. ( )

More later. But I'll start by saying this was completely engaging. Couldn't put it down and since I'm on vacation, I didn't really have to. ( )

Normally I don't think I would like a book about Laura Bush - even one that is fiction, but it was fascinating to take a peek into this made up world. There were some basis for facts and then the story around those, which made it like historical fiction and a fun read.

The most interesting reaction I had was how little we really know the President, his wife, or any celebrity. We only know what reporters show or tell us and that might not be factual. In addition, we only know what their managers/pr person/spin doctor wants us to know. That said, it made me think about how quickly we are to judge them and we really don't even know them.

Makes me want to do a stop and think before lashing out about some of the stupid antics of celebrities - political or otherwise. ( )

With 98 reviews so far of this book on LibraryThing, I'm not sure another is needed. But I'm not sure I saw anyone saying the things that most affected me in the book. First of all, wonderfully written! Much more than chick lit or even the typical best seller list novel. It is a portrait, maybe, of Laura Bush but it is a novel about a particular marriage...a marriage in which the lifestyle and choices are almost all those of the husband's because of his background, status, and ambitions. Yet the wife is a very real person, with a strong sense of compassion, duty, justice, and guilt -- and a person who needs to have some fun in her life! I truly identified with Alice Blackwell's feelings of guilt, tempered by intelligence and willingness to be forgiving and accepting of others. I think this the moving force behind the actions and feelings of many so-called liberals. And I see what appears to be the moral insensitivity of many rich and privileged people like Charlie Blackwell, Ellie the daughter, and mostly his whole clan. I can also identify with the experience of "marrying up" financially and socially. My own family had no money at all, and it was a marvel to me to marry into a family of comfortable means for that time and place (something like Alice's folks, actually), and then to have some in the next generation marry into very wealthy families. Like Alice, I find it amazing, and very hard to feel comfortably part of that milieu. I, too, have been a teacher and librarian (and newspaper reporter and writer and missionary and pastor's wife) and all of those are demanding jobs with tremendously rewarding payoffs in the feeling of satisfaction in being of service to others and making a difference. You can see why I found this novel about Alice/Laura expressing some of my own feelings and experiences over many decades now. Hurrah for and thans to Curtis Sittenfeld for doing a fabulous job on this book. I'd love to know if Laura Bush has read it and what she thought! And I hope to get to a reading group discussion on it. Now I'm off to read a biography of Laura Bush, The Perfect Wife. ( )

I loved this not-so-subtle fictionalization of Laura Bush's life. This book is very sympathetic to the First Lady and her road to the White House, and shows the President in the light of someone who loves him even while she sees his flaws more clearly than anyone else. I found the first part of the book heart-wrenching. I recommend it to liberals and conservatives alike. ( )

When liberal minded librarian Alice Lindgren meets and marries political legacy Charlie Blackwell, neither she nor anyone else quite understands why her marriage works - all the way to the White House. This fictionalised portrayal of Laura Bush is incredibly sympathetic but never tips into syrupy or over the top. ( )

I picked this up after having seen it as an Early Review book a couple of months ago, and I am incredibly glad that I did. This is a quick read, not because it is short in length (it isn't), but because the story flows very well. It is an engaging story, and I found it interesting to look up little tidbits and facts from the story and compare them to that of Laura Bush's life. Obviously this is primarily fiction (I'd have a hard time believing that it were only the names that were changed, especially considering the depth of detail that is written), but the similarities drawn between the Blackwell family and the Bush family are unmistakable. The style is engaging and the characters are interesting - inherently flawed, but not unlikeable, even some of the most unpleasant of them. I really enjoyed it from start to finish. ( )

I liked this book but the fact that it was so closely based on the life of Laura Bush just felt wrong somehow. I just kept wishing Laura--er, Alice would get some backbone! ( )

I had a very hard time finishing this book. Should have put it down halfway through. ( )