American Wife

by Curtis Sittenfeld

The first 439 pages of this novel merit 5 stars. Alas! When our American wife makes it to the White House, the story falls flat on its face.

Anyway, this is the engrossing (and somewhat trashy) tale of Alice Lindgren Blackwell, future first lady. Growing up in a small Wisconsin town, Alice has a good life. She is an only child who lives with her mother, father, and grandmother. Her father has a job at the bank, her mother is the perfect housewife, and her grandmother is an eccentric intellectual. Alice is beautiful and bookish, and as sweet as can be.

But things change when Alice is in a car accident, an accident in which she is responsible for the death of a classmate. This is where her life takes a sordid turn!

I won't give away the rest of the plot. Everyone knows that this story was loosely based on that of Laura Bush. It's fun to keep that in mind while reading, particularly when she meets her future husband, Charlie Blackwell.

Alice is very likable, and you cannot help but to become involved in her story. The plot is quite engaging and only becomes stale when she actually moves into the White House.

9/25/08