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American Wife
 
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American Wife (Paperback)

by Curtis Sittenfeld (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 640 pages
  • Publisher: Black Swan (2 Jul 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0552775541
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552775540
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 4.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 936 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

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.


About the Author

Curtis Sittenfeld is the author of the bestselling novels Prep and The Man of My Dreams. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

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Customer Reviews

24 Reviews
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4 star:
 (8)
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 (6)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A moving portrayal of one woman's life - compelling, absorbing & difficult to put down, 11 Jul 2009
As someone with no great interest in American politics I was a little dubious when this book was recommended to me. What a pleasant surprise. I found it utterly compelling and difficult to put down. The politics are the backdrop to what is, in effect, a moving account of an ordinary woman's life, her struggles with issues large and small and the great joy she finds in those aspects of her life that most women will identify with - her family and friends. I don't want to give away the plot, but suffice it to say that it covers family, friendships, love, death, addiction, relationships, career, children, religion, politics and the struggle to find a way to stay true to yourself. I have no idea how factual the book is but to me that doesn't matter. As a story of an ordinary woman it is beautifully written and utterly believable. Highly recommended.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Don't Go There, 6 Aug 2009
By D. Lambourne "Bookseller" (France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a brilliant novel, spolied as so many reviewers here point out by a lame ending. I first came across Curtis Sittenfeld as the author of 'Prep', a clever, insightful, clearly autobiographical account of a girl's education (her name is Lee) at an American prep school. 'Man of My Dreams', the short novel which followed, is a bit of a disappointment, not because it isn't good, but because it offers very little in the way of an advance on 'Prep' -- basically it is Lee Goes to College. 'American Wife' is the Sittenfeld's breakthrough novel, and this is very much the step forward I was looking for. The autobiographical note has been left behind -- the narrator of 'American Wife' (forget Laura Bush, if you can) is a person in her own right, with experiences and observations that always ring true. Even the passages describing her sex life with Charlie seem right and justifiable, despite the image of 'W' which for some readers will be forever lurking in the undergrowth. The last part of the book, however, is clearly a mistake. Describing life at the White House carries Sittenfeld only too predictably into the territory mapped out by tv shows like'The West Wing'. It can't be done -- not well, at any rate -- and wasn't in fact necessary. Everything she wanted to say about politics and family and compromise and idealism and money and privilege in American life was there already. It is as if Jane Austen had attempted to write a sequel to P & P in which Darcy became prime minister. You'd read it, but you'd wish she hadn't done it. Read 'American Wife' for the first three-quarters, and forgive the rest. All criticisms aside, I am eagerly awaiting her next book.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A story of parts, 27 Jul 2009
A very well written enjoyable book all the more interesting as it is loosely based on the life of now ex-First Lady Laura Bush. I really loved and whizzed through the first 3 parts of this book, but in the final part set in the White House the characters did seem to get a little lost amongst the larger events and Alice's justifications for setting aside her own beliefs to support her husbands presidency.
On a personal note I did struggle with some of the more romantic/sexual scenes, I'm no prude by any stretch of the imagination but the image of George Bush bounding around naked in bed was sometimes a bit too much for me :)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars American Wife
Very detailed sex scenes; crude family. Not pleasant at all. I only completed reading because I am part of a Book Group. Not recommended.
Published 19 days ago by Martha Haigh

3.0 out of 5 stars American wife
Overall I enjoyed this book. I read it for our book club and it generated a varied and detailed debate on personal choice and responsibility. Read more
Published 19 days ago by K. Ligtvoet

4.0 out of 5 stars American Wife
One of the things that make a book memorable is whether you look forward to picking it up again at night (I read in bed). Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. M. G. Clarke

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant portrait
I, too, thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought it was remarkable how such a young author could do such a fine job of describing (and so sympathetically) the sort of woman with... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Anastasia Brown

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting read
This book was chosen by my book group and was probably not a book I would have chosen to read otherwise. I have to say that I found it an unexpectedly good read. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. Susan Masterton

3.0 out of 5 stars Three and a half stars
I agree with some of the previous reviews, one of them describing this as "flabby in the middle." The thoughts and feelings of the main character really seemed to ring true to me... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Herman Melville

5.0 out of 5 stars loved it - right up to the end
Having now finished the book, I have time to rejoin the real world. I loved this book right up to the end. I look at political wives in a different light now. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Shelfie

4.0 out of 5 stars Vivid and absorbing portrait of a marriage


Other reviewers have already discussed the plot of this book so I won't repeat that. I didn't know much about the book before I started reading it, and certainly... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Roman Clodia

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't fancy Dubya
Here's the thing. This is brilliant right up till the entrance of Charlie, aka Georgie. Sittenfeld creates a brilliantly damaged protagonist. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jane Lumley

5.0 out of 5 stars American Wife
American Wife is an absorbing read. Expect the unexpected. It strangely reads as an ordinary life but by using the main character, Alice, as the storyteller the author takes us... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ms. A. Galloway

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