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American Wife

by Curtis Sittenfeld
American Wife

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  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Reading Group Guide
  • Read an Excerpt

ISBN13: 9780812975406
ISBN10: 0812975405
Condition: Standard


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband's presidency, Alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House — and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, almost in opposition to itself.

A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice learned the virtues of politeness early on from her stolid parents and small Wisconsin hometown. But a tragic accident when she was seventeen shattered her identity and made her understand the fragility of life and the tenuousness of luck. So more than a decade later, when she met boisterous, charismatic Charlie Blackwell, she hardly gave him a second look: She was serious and thoughtful, and he would rather crack a joke than offer a real insight; he was the wealthy son of a bastion family of the Republican party, and she was a school librarian and registered Democrat. Comfortable in her quiet and unassuming life, she felt inured to his charms. And then, much to her surprise, Alice fell for Charlie.

As Alice learns to make her way amid the clannish energy and smug confidence of the Blackwell family, navigating the strange rituals of their country club and summer estate, she remains uneasy with her new-found good fortune. And when Charlie eventually becomes President, Alice is thrust into a position she did not seek — one of power and influence, privilege and responsibility. As Charlie's tumultuous and controversial second term in the White House wears on, Alice must face contradictions years in the making: How can she both love and fundamentally disagree with her husband? How complicit has she been in the trajectory of her own life? What should she do when her private beliefs run against her public persona?

In Alice Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is a gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and the exigencies of fate into a brilliant tapestry — a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare.

Review

"Curtis Sittenfeld is an amazing writer, and American Wife is a brave and moving novel about the intersection of private and public life in America. Ambitious and humble at the same time, Sittenfeld refuses to trivialize or simplify people, whether real or imagined." Richard Russo

Review

"What a remarkable (and brave) thing: a compassionate, illuminating, and beautifully rendered portrait of a fictional Republican first lady with a life and husband very much like our actual Republican first lady's. Curtis Sittenfeld has written a novel as impressive as it is improbable." Kurt Andersen

Review

"Ms. Sittenfeld deftly captures Alice's uneasy assimilation into the Blackwell clan's boisterous...and she proves equally adept at evoking the daily texture of their early married life." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

Review

"Curtis Sittenfeld boldly imagines the inner life of a first lady. Does she pull off a credible portrayal? Yes, unequivocally." USA Today

Review

"Sittenfeld wraps her arms around it. The scope and detail of American Wife are reminiscent of Richard Russo." Los Angeles Times

Review

"Sittenfeld's most ambitious and impressive work to date." Chicago Tribune

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and fate into a brilliant portrait of a first lady--from the author of Rodham and Eligible

"Terrific . . . an intelligent, bighearted novel about a controversial political dynasty."--Entertainment Weekly

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time - People - Entertainment Weekly

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 of a powerful Republican family sweeps her off her feet, she is surprised to find herself admitted into a world of privilege.

And when her husband unexpectedly becomes governor and then president, she discovers that she is married to a man she both loves and fundamentally disagrees with--and that her private beliefs increasingly run against her public persona. As her husband's presidency enters its second term, Alice must confront contradictions years in the making and face questions nearly impossible to answer.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review - Chicago Tribune - NPR - Rocky Mountain News - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - The Washington Post Book World

Synopsis

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 of a powerful Republican family sweeps her off her feet, she is surprised to find herself admitted into a world of privilege. And when her husband unexpectedly becomes governor and then president, she discovers that she is married to a man she both loves and fundamentally disagrees with-and that her private beliefs increasingly run against her public persona. As her husbands presidency enters its second term, Alice must confront contradictions years in the making and face questions nearly impossible to answer.

About the Author

Curtis Sittenfeld's first novel, Prep, was a national bestseller. It was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of 2005 by The New York Times, will be published in fourteen foreign countries, has been optioned by Paramount Pictures. Sittenfeld's nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Salon, Allure, Glamour, and on NPR's "This American Life." She lives in Philadelphia.

Reading Group Guide

1. The novel opens and closes with Alice wondering if shes made terrible mistakes. Do you think she has? If so, what are they?

2. Alices grandmother passes down her love of reading. How else is Alice influenced by her grandmother?

3. Why does Andrew remain such an important figure to Alice, even decades later? Do you think they would have ended up together under different circumstances?

4. To what do you attribute Denas anger at what she calls Alices betrayal? Do you believe her anger is justified?

5. Is Charlie a likable character? Can you understand Alices attraction to him?

6. Does Alice compromise herself and her ideals during her marriage, or does she realistically alter her behavior and expectations in order to preserve the most important relationship in her life?

7. Were you surprised by the scene between Alice and Joe at the Princeton reunion? Why do you think it happened?

8. What would you have done in Alices situation at the end of the novel? Do you think it was wrong of her to take the stance she did?

9. How do you think Laura Bush would react to this novel if she read it?


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techeditor , June 30, 2017 (view all comments by techeditor)
AMERICAN WIFE is fiction. Be sure to remember that, although the American wife in AMERICAN WIFE is based on Laura Bush. Just remember that she really is a character of Curtis Sittenfeld’s imagination. Then you may enjoy the book properly because you understand what it really is. This book is mostly a soap opera. That should not put you off. After all, I call Tolstoy’s ANNA KARENINA a soap opera. Just like a soap opera, AMERICAN WIFE takes time to get into, to grab you and make you care. So the chapters describing Alice’s (Laura’s) childhood and adolescence can be boring, as it was for me. But later, particularly when she becomes first lady, her first-person accounts are absorbing. Because Alice tells her own story, she is also able to ruminate and does so frequently. The story does not progress during these times when she tells you what she really thinks and feels. This is when you need to be most conscious that Alice is a figment of Sittenfeld’s imagination.

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Izmir girl , January 17, 2010
American Wife is a book that I think about again and again. The love story between the main character and her boyfriend/husband was very compelling.

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ldlombardo , January 03, 2010
This is the quintessential book of the decade. It is about a woman born in the 20th Century finding her way into the 21st Century. She is good, she is bad. She makes measured choices. She is not perfect, but she is perfectly interesting. "Faction" or fairy tale, this is a story that had me turning pages into the wee small hours of the morning. And don't even get me started on who she selected to be her lifetime partner. Boot-kickin' good!

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Elizabeth Lenaghan , November 23, 2009 (view all comments by Elizabeth Lenaghan)
When I was first told of the conceit of this book, I had no desire to read it. However, after seeing a few positive reviews and being compelled by Elizabeth Banks' performance of Laura Bush in Oliver Stone's W., I changed my mind (it should also be noted that I've read all of Sittenfeld's novels, which says something about how compulsively readable her books are, though I wouldn't have rated any of them higher than this). As far as the plot goes, I think this is the most sophisticated and intricate of Sittenfeld's efforts. Alice Blackwell is a fully realized character, in the best sense of the term. In fact, she becomes so real that you are either compelled to forgive Laura Bush for any/all complicity she had in the disaster of her husband's administration, or just forget the Bush White House was the inspiration for this novel altogether. (I actually found the latter more palatable in many parts of the novel, particularly those that allude to the President's sex life, but even those that revisit his social and war policies). Either way, the story provides enough "behind the scenes" gossip to fill its 500+ pages, and I found it a perfect companion for my solo-research trip (where it distracted me from a slight fear for flying and from wasting my evenings on television while I lounged in my hotel room alone). All of this said, there's something so easily forgettable about all of Sittenfeld's books, and this one (despite the loftiness of its subject matter) is no exception. I can't help but think a writer so talented she can make readers have empathy for a terrible man's wife should also be able to conjure up something I might recall hours after having read it. I will likely continue to indulge in Sittenfeld's books, but I hope they get less fluffy because I think she's capable of more.

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Christy Valentine , March 10, 2009 (view all comments by Christy Valentine)
Curtis Sittenfeld, an excellent writer, for certain, has crafted a novel that will most likely be remembered as a thinly-veiled fictional biography of Laura Bush. The fact that it exists is perhaps its greatest strength and greatest weakness. Sittenfeld crafts an elegant story of a well-meaning woman who finds herself caught up in love with an enterprising man from a wealthy family. Certain details about Bush's life are given life in the novel, and while this does make for engrossing reading, by the end of the book, one might feel slightly sick. During the last section of the novel, it becomes apparent that Sittenfeld has created an idealized version of Bush, one that she seems to believe truly exists. There is the creeping sensation that it is less and less an impressive narrative exercise, and more and more a concocted fantasy of the way this very real woman could be. Though I personally identify as a radical leftist, I found the last pages of the novel to read more like Sittenfeld's personal political views spilling from the character's lips in a way that felt very inauthentic. In a way, I view Sittenfeld's novel as being fundamentally similar to Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight," though the former is a far superior book. Both novels exist as a physical manifestation of their author's deepest fantasies, and ones that perhaps the reader should not be privy to, much less under the guise of serious literature.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780812975406
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
02/10/2009
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Series info:
Random House Reader's Circle
Pages:
592
Height:
1.22IN
Width:
5.15IN
Thickness:
1.00
Series:
New York Times Notable Books
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
2009
UPC Code:
2800812975408
Author:
Curtis Sittenfeld
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
Bildungsromans
Subject:
Presidents' spouses -- United States.
Subject:
General Fiction

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