American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Alice Lindgren is an unassuming thirty year old librarian with a few tragic secrets in her past when she meets Charlie Blackwell, son of the former governor of Wisconsin. Calm, reserved Alice is swept off her feet by rowdy, rambunctious Charlie and the two are married after a whirlwind courtship. The two are just like most married couples. They have had hardships in their marriage and they adore their daughter. However, Charlie yearns for a bigger life and legacy than working at his family's company can offer. He eventually becomes the president of the United States and Alice, despite desiring a quiet life, is not only first lady, but also the wife of one of the most unpopular presidents in United States history.

This is a not quite so loosely based account of the life of Laura Bush, our first lady for the next few hours and the past eight years. While some events/places/names have been changed, many events, especially those that have happened since the 2000 election remain exactly the same.

In a word, I found this book to be manipulative. So very manipulative.

I just finished reading over 500 pages about this character, Alice Blackwell, and I still feel as though I don't really know her. She exists solely as a mirror for the reader's reaction to the events in the book. The liberal counterpart to her conservative husband, her politics consist of reacting in quiet horror to the bigotry displayed by almost every Republican she encounters throughout her life. Of course they're racist. Of course they're draft dodgers. Of course they hate gay people and Jews, poor people, abortion and peace. They're flatulent and chew with their mouths open. They're republicans and therefore evil. I'm a liberal democrat, with no love to speak of for President Bush, but Sittenfeld's blatantly biased view of republicans made my stomach turn. As far as her personality goes, Alice is nice, shy, quiet, and a myriad of other similar simple adjectives that best allow the reader to not get too distracted by Alice herself, but instead be a fly on the wall of her husband's life and stew on how bad the past eight years have been.

The political aspect is nothing in comparison to the racial aspect. As I've said before, republicans are racist in Alice's world, so Alice herself gets to be the benevolent caretaker, sort of a reverse of the literary "magical negro", the helpmate of the downtrodden African Americans employed by her husband's family. It's so condescending. I expect that sort of thing in a Sweet Valley High book, but not from the great Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep! Sorry, no. The fact that all African Americans are presented as being need of help from the nice, rich, white lady strikes me as being just as racist as Alice's mother-in-law asking if she's been associating with a "nigress".

In addition, all of the interesting things one associates with being the wife of a prominent political figure are cut out of the book entirely. At her wedding, Alice is worried about fitting into Charlie's world, one of country clubs and privilege. Fast forward to the next page and she has a third grader and she's already fully acclimated to that life. Though she remarks in the present about campaigning in the past, we never see that. What would have been the most interesting times to have seen in her life are neglected in favor of heavily featuring arguably the most interesting time in future President Bush's er -I mean Blackwell's- life, alcoholism, drug abuse, becoming a born again Christian, and owner of a baseball team. Charlie experiences all of this as Alice is once again the mirror for the reader to see into the future president's life. Sittenfeld should have just called this one American Husband and told the story from Charlie's point-of-view, as it's obvious that this is the story she wants to tell.

Though some events in the past are similar to the real life couple, many are fictionalized. Alice and Charlie are from Wisconsin, not Texas. His father is the former governor, not the former president, etc. Fast forward to the present day and it's basically the past eight years. The press and public think the president is a moron, the president has involved the country in an unpopular war, the 2000 election results came down to Florida's electoral votes, and an eventual 5-4 Supreme Court decision. Terrorists attacked New York and D.C. on September 11, 2001, while war was declared (albeit on an unnamed country -gee whoever could it be?) in March, 2003. Alice doesn't have a lot to say about it. She's all for ending the war, but doesn't talk to her husband about it. The last third of the book serves as both a reminder of how bad the past eight years have been and a venue for Sittenfeld to preach about how important it is to be pro-choice.

I understand that Laura Bush is a private woman. Not as much is known about her or her personality as with some previous first ladies. If this was an unauthorized biography on her I could understand the lack of personality in the main character. But this is supposed to be a work of fiction! Even though it's based on Laura Bush, couldn't some of the fictional elements included be some opinions, personality characteristics, hobbies, or some semblance of a plot that isn't just watching her husband live his life? Curtis Sittenfeld is a fantastic writer, one of the best. The actual writing itself in this story was superb. The story, however, I found somewhat lacking. If you want to know how the "story" "ends", just turn on CNN tomorrow morning.

http://thechickmanifesto.blogspot.com/2009/01/american-wife-by-curtis-sittenfeld.html