Thanks go to Andrea for submitting the following guest review. She grades according to a five-star system and I’ve left her grade as is.
I’m an avid reader who doesn’t have a blog and who doesn’t review books, but was called to Sarah’s challenge for guest bloggers in November (Thank you Sarah!). I’m also not much of a romance novel reader, so my book is secular, if you will.
Last week I finished American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld. This book is told from the perspective of Alice Lindgren Blackwell. We first meet Alice as a girl raised in Riley, Wisconsin who goes on to become a teacher, school librarian, wife, mother and – oh yeah – First Lady of the United States. I’m not giving anything away by saying that this novel is touted everywhere as closely resembling the life of Laura Bush.
There are no chapters, but the book is separated chronologically into 4 sections with some occasional, present-day interjections from Alice with her wisdom in hindsight.
The first section is Alice’s childhood in Riley as an only child in an undemonstrative family. The bright spots in her childhood come from her unorthodox Grandmother and her best friend Dana. There is a tragedy of which she is responsible that shakes her as a 17 year old.
Alice is a teacher and librarian in Madison, WI in the second section of the book. She’s had a long-term relation or two but is approaching 30 and is unmarried. Then she meets Charlie Blackwell, the youngest son of a well-known Wisconsin family famous for their beef dynasty and for various other family members’ political involvements. Alice and Charlie have a whirlwind romance and get married within a year.
The section follows the Blackwell family to Marmee, Wisconsin with one daughter. They have an easy life financially, but behind the scenes Alice is struggling with her husband and with restrictions that come with her life. Charlie works occasionally in the family business, is drinking quite a bit and is not feeling like he’s living up to his legacy – a concept I found very amusing and which Alice finds infuriating. Charlie eventually buys a baseball team and becomes Governor of Wisconsin.
In the fourth section of the book, Charlie has already become President of the United States and there are frequent flashbacks that tell the story of how he got there. 9/11 has happened, and the President is in the midst of dealing with war while the First Lady is making appearances and is feeling alienated from her husband and the turn their lives have taken. This last section has a very different feel than the first three, very somber and almost cold. The writing seems to reflect the importance of the Presidency, what has happened to the nation, as well as Alice’s distance from her life.
What I enjoyed most about this book was getting a behind the scenes glimpse of Alice Blackwell’s life. She is a very strong woman with a clear voice and a great spirit. And I must admit that I have a greater appreciation for George W. Bush as a person after reading this novel. I glimpsed a lot of his charm in Charlie Blackwell. Though the Blackwell’s had their share of problems, their love for each other was a constant in their lives.
I personally know too little about Laura Bush to comment on how accurate this book mirrors her life. There were some points I looked up online that match up. There are surely 2-3 other points that could never be proven but are in no way impossible.
Other than a somewhat slow start, my only criticism of the novel is the lack of chapters. I like to have chapters to separate the book, and to feel like I’m in a good place to set it down when I need to. Having only the four sections in this 554 page novel seemed to stress me when I needed to take a break. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
Have you read this novel? What are your thoughts?
{ 2 comments }
This sounds like an interesting book! I’m sure it was fun trying to guess what bits were true and which were not. I am almost embarrassed to admit that my only biographical knowledge of George W. Bush and Laura comes from Kitty Kelley’s tell-all The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Family. Kelley’s “biographies” are hilarious but they can’t be taken to present a balanced and accurate picture of whoever her latest subject/victim is.
I’ve looked at ‘American Wife’ several times in book stores but, so far, haven’t bought it. Now I will. My only knowledge of Laura Bush is what I’ve learned from Oprah and Kitty Kelley (though I thought Kitty’s Bush book was the least successful of all her no-holds-barred biographies, maybe because they’re just not that interesting?).