American Wife

July 7, 2008
Sittenfeld tracks, in her uneven third novel, the life of bookish, naïve Alice Lindgren and the trajectory that lands her in the White House as first lady. Charlie Blackwell, her boyishly charming rake of a husband, whose background of Ivy League privilege, penchant for booze and partying, contempt for the news and habit of making flubs when speaking off the cuff, bears more than a passing resemblance to the current president (though the Blackwells hail from Wisconsin, not Texas). Sittenfeld shines early in her portrayal of Alice's coming-of-age in Riley, Wis., living with her parents and her mildly eccentric grandmother. A car accident in her teens results in the death of her first crush, which haunts Alice even as she later falls for Charlie and becomes overwhelmed by his family's private summer compound and exclusive country club membership. Once the author leaves the realm of pure fiction, however, and has the first couple deal with his being ostracized as a president who favors an increasingly unpopular war, the book quickly loses its panache and sputters to a weak conclusion that doesn't live up to the fine storytelling that precedes it.

Starred review from July 1, 2008
In her boldthird novel, the author of the best-sellingPrep (2005) presents a fictional portrait ofFirst Lady Laura Bush, although she changes someimportantdetails.In a memoir told entirely in the first person, Alice Blackwellrelays her unlikely ascent to the White House from her humble Wisconsin beginnings. Sheconveys in convincing, thoroughly riveting detail a life far more complicated than it appears on the surfacethe moment she discovered that her beloved grandmother was a lesbian; a tragic, life-changing car accident she hadas a teenager; the friendship she willingly sacrificed with her best friend when she started dating thegood-humored, athletic Charlie Blackwell; and her uncomfortable initiation into the tight-knit, immensely wealthyBlackwell family, run with unflappable authority byits formidable matriarch. No one is more surprised than Alice when her hard-drinking, sports-team-owning husband morphs into a born-again Christian with political ambitions. Suddenly, Alices life is no longer her own as her every move is parsed for its political implications. Sittenfeld is sure to come under fire for presuming to so methodically blur the lines between fiction and reality and fortimingher novels publication to an election year for maximumpublicity. Yetwhat she does here, in prose as winning as it is confident, isto craft out of the first-person narrationa compelling, very human voice, one full of kindness anddecency. And, as if making the Bush-like coupleentirely sympathetic is not enough of a feat in itself, she also providesmany rich insights into the emotional ebb and flow of a long-term marriage.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)