American Wife

AMERICAN WIFE

by Curtis Sittenfeld

 

Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2010, Women's Prize Longlist 2009

 

Date Read: March 19, 2021

 

Although I knew American Wife was based on an actual first lady’s life, I had no idea who it actually was until Alice’s husband, Charlie, buys a baseball team. Then – BINGO! Of course, it’s Laura Bush. This revelation then made me review everything I had read and wonder if the likability I had experienced until then would continue toward a figure that I do not, in fact, like.

 

For all the juicy tidbits of sex, class and political maneuverings, Sittenfeld treats this subject matter with care and nuance. Alice is not merely a Stepford wife-type figure but a woman who wants to have an impact and maintain her own integrity in light of her husband’s bright and rising star. For the most part, Alice is able to live with integrity and stay true to the values she has held all her life, even when those values are in opposition to her husband’s official positions. How true this is to the actual George and Laura, I really cannot say.

 

Some of the events in American Wife are indeed true. I immediately Googled if Laura Bush had killed someone when a teenager and she did. Sittenfeld’s treatment of this horrific event caused me to have a great deal of sympathy for Laura in a way I didn’t before. Is the actual Laura Bush pro-choice? She is, in direct opposition to husband’s position. Was she a librarian? Yes again. The broad brushstrokes of the life portrayed do match up.

 

But. There’s always a but. I admit to not liking George Bush and never have. This book did nothing to change my opinion. His striving for political recognition seemed more to do with ego and taking his family’s political dynasty for a test-drive than any deep-seeded desire to be a public servant. I would almost say his political pursuits were born out of equal parts a need for an ego boost and boredom. What a privilege to be able to scratch that itch by stumbling into a presidency. This novel only confirmed those thoughts.

 

And for all the mutterings of “legacy, my legacy” we hear throughout the book, which don’t amount to much more than a n’er do well having a mid-life crisis, George Bush emerged from his presidency with one of the costliest wars ever waged (which continues to this day) and the notorious distinction of a war criminal for enacting torture protocols against the Geneva Convention. The man should be in jail.

 

These weightier topics were completely avoided, although I did appreciate how Sittenfeld did wander briefly into the controversy of the Iraq War. Overall, I found this work thoroughly entertaining and the characters really well drawn. I feel like Charlie was right on the money but I am so unsure how the Alice depicted here resembles the actual Laura Bush. The fun, of course, is that we’ll never really know.