And then last night, at the end of it, I just wanted to put it down and be rid of it.

I couldn't put down the book for a few days. It's too bad, because the more I think about it, the more I realize how compelling I found the first half of the book, which makes the end even more disappointing. So would I recommend this book? No, not really. It seems highly unlikely, though.And! There was no real resolution. If this is how Laura Bush really is, I'm sorry for her. I also wish that Alice hadn't been such a meepy, wishy-washy character by the end of the book. I guess I just wish it wasn't so transparently a novel about George and Laura Bush. I didn't know what I was getting into, and as I really started to figure it out, it got less interesting.I have to say that I didn't like Sittenfeld's first book, I skipped her second, and I only requested this because I thought a novel about a first lady might be okay. And as the book moved into his presidency, it seemed compressed, and the more it compressed, the less the book seemed like a good piece of fiction. It didn't take long to figure it out, and while I somewhat liked the beginning 250-300 pages, the book became less interesting after Alice married Charlie. When I requested this, I had no idea it was a fictionalized account of Laura Bush's life.

The Washington Post Book World Read more.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review As her husband’s presidency enters its second term, Alice must confront contradictions years in the making and face questions nearly impossible to answer.

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.Īnd 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. 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. NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time Ī 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. an intelligent, bighearted novel about a controversial political dynasty.”- Entertainment Weekly

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.

American wife curtis sittenfeld summary