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American Wife

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American Wife

By: Curtis Sittenfeld
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin

In the year 2000, in the closest election in American history, Alice Blackwell's husband becomes president of the United States. Their time in the White House proves to be heady, tumultuous, and controversial.

But it is Alice's own story - that of a kind, bookish, only child born in the 1940s Midwest who comes to inhabit a life of dizzying wealth and power - that is itself remarkable. Alice candidly describes her small-town upbringing, and the tragedy that shaped her identity; she recalls her early adulthood as a librarian, and her surprising courtship with the man who swept her off her feet; she tells of the crisis that almost ended their marriage; and she confides the privileges and difficulties of being first lady, a role that is uniquely cloistered and public, secretive and exposed.

In Alice Blackwell, Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is not a novel about politics. It is a gorgeously written novel that weaves race, class, fate and wealth into a brilliant tapestry. It is a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare.

©2020 Curtis Sittenfeld (P)2020 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Women's Fiction Marriage Inspiring Tear-jerking American History
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If you told me I would thoroughly enjoy an intellectual fictionalization of the life of Laura Bush, I would have laughed.

This book is excellent… extremely well written. Full of surprises! I really found it quite riveting. For me, it had just the right amount of characterisation and meticulous plotting.

Part of the magic is how compelling Sittenfeld makes a character with very very few aspirations complex and interesting. It compelled me to reflect deeply on the role of the midwestern housewife, gender socialisation, the patriarchy, etc. The book excels with capturing the complexity of never wanting power and then ending up powerful/influential (without doing the whole fish out of water thing which has so been done before).

Things that really kept me engaged:

*The attraction-of-opposites husband/wife dynamic and their power struggles/micro-aggressions over the course of decades
*The tension between the personal and the celebrity (in the third act)
*The attention to class, gender and ethnicity - very spot on!
*How richly the characters are drawn
*The author knows the tropes and skips the tropes

I’m really excited to work my way through Sittenfeld’s other books!!!

Full of surprises!

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I read Rodham and loved it and just needed to get my hands on more of this author. Love her style of writing. So engaging. Such an interesting insight into the life of The First Lady. Fascinating. I learnt a lot and was entertained. Narrator very good.

What a writer!

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I couldn’t “put it down”. After listening to Rodham last year I don’t know why it took me so long to get in to this one, but I’m so glad it did. The connection to the main character is masterfully built. I thought perhaps the last section was a bit rushed after the detailed pace of the first three, but it was less about Alice and more about Charlie by then I guess.

Captivating!

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enjoyed it but ..... if it is Laura Bush I really didnt want to know so much about George in the sack !

can never look at george Bush the same !

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I loved this book, and I loved this whole story! It unfolded so beautifully. The author so cleverly developed the characters in such a way that was completely believable and enthralling. It was such an interesting listen.
The narrator was absolutely brilliant!

Such an interesting storyline. Had me hooked!

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My comments are negative so I hope I don’t offend ...
I found Most characters annoying especially Pricilla (bit**) and Charlie - even Alice - so dreary and boring ...
I got tired reading about such pompous privilege, and a self centred “boys club” type of family - the men’s behaviour was appalling...
And the rest of the story wasn’t much better
I believe Alice is based on the character of Laura Bush but I’m sure it had to have been somewhat embellished ...?
I thought the story was shallow, tedious, but I only kept reading because I thought it would get better...

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