But, American Wife was entertaining for the most part. It is the story of a childhood, a romance, a marriage, and ultimately a political career. But the presidency doesn't happen until the last 120 pages. A lot of the story is about their marriage, at times struggling, and Alice fitting into Charlie's very affluent family after her middle-class childhood.
Alice's first-person narrative flips back and forth in time quite a bit, and this technique worked well for me. Especially during the presidency years, she is very introspective about fame and how it changes a person and how she fought these changes. Somewhat repetitive, I still found these insights helped the reader relate to this very unique situation.
American Wife would not fit into my "must read" category, but it certainly was not a waste of time. If you are interested in seeing the rise of a political career from the First Lady's perspective, this is a good one. Sittenfeld did a lot of research into first ladies of the time period, and I felt her observations were authentic.
Published by Random House, 2008
Copy obtained from my personal library
558 pages
Rating: 4/5
I haven't heard of this one, but it sounds interesting. I've always wondered what it must be like to have that position: wife of the president. It's an odd "job."
ReplyDeleteSo I read a book by Curtis Sittenfeld this past year and was shocked to learn that the author was (is) female.
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