MADreads

Laura Bush revealed

October 29th, 2008 Liz - Central Library

The novel American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld just absolutely knocked my socks off.  Seriously, it is SOOO GOOD that I’m considering writing her a fan letter.

American Wife is an account of a young Wisconsin woman who meets and marries a man very different from her.  He’s rich, he’s a partier, he’s intellectually beneath her.  But she loves him.  She finds him fun.  And she probably needs some fun.

By setting the book in Wisconsin and changing some details– Charlie Blackwell is part of the family’s meat business until he buys the Brewers baseball team — Sittenfeld is fictionalizing the lives of George Bush and his wife Laura.  But…the way she describes him (George/Charlie) especially, lets you know this is absolutely the Bushes, just tweaked.

Why did I love this book so very much?  Because it is really about Laura/Alice and their marriage.  I didn’t really know, until I began reading, why a smart, quiet librarian who never wanted to give any speeches would marry a snarky, heavy drinking, not-intellectually-vigorous man.  And here Sittenfeld imagines why.  And how a marriage of very different people can work because, frankly, of the power of love and attraction.

Most of the novel takes place in the years before Bush/Blackwell was governor or president.  Especially fun for our readers will be the accuracy with which Sittenfeld portrays Madison (where a BIG chunk of the book is set) and Wisconsin.

Love or hate the Bushes– surprisingly I don’t think it matters here.  The deeper insights into marriage and partnership and the interior life of a woman who never ran for anything but ended up on the global stage is completely engrossing.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction