American Wife

by Curtis Sittenfeld | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0552775541 Global Overview for this book
Registered by kiwiinengland of Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on 9/20/2010
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by kiwiinengland from Wellington City, Wellington Province New Zealand on Friday, January 7, 2011
On one of the most important days of her husband's presidency, Alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led them to the White House.

The book is based on the life of Laura Bush.

Journal Entry 2 by kiwiinengland at Dublin, Co. Dublin Ireland on Sunday, January 16, 2011
I had to read this for a book group, and probably would have stopped half way through if it wasn't for that.

This is a very long (600+ pages) which looks at minute details of a woman's life who seems happy to lose her character and personality to others around her - most specifically her husband and his family's way of life.

The last part showed much of what is wrong with the American Presidency and the trappings, expectations and demands to make a very rich man be out of touch with the people who voted him in.

Released 13 yrs ago (2/26/2011 UTC) at Waterhouse Pub, St Peter's Square in Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:






If you aren't familiar with Bookcrossing, take a few minutes to check out this very cool site. Bookcrossers LOVE books, and more than anything, they love to read books and then set them free for other people to find and enjoy. I would love it if you would leave a journal entry -- you can say where you found the book or how you liked it when you read it.

Journal Entry 4 by jehanine at Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Judging by the rave reviews all over the first few pages, from eminent literary organs, this book did an awful lot for them that it didn't for me. Oh, there are plenty of good things about it - a measured approach, examining moral consequences, marriage, racism, politics etc, and some nifty characters, but sadly it feels the need to examine everything else as well. For instance, in a visit to a Country Club that feautures very little in the plot, we are told that the pencils at the snack stand were green and didn't have an eraser, and treated to plenty of similar minutiae in a room-by-room description. There's a sort of earnestness here, as if the author believed she was indeed recording historic events rather than writing a fictionalised life of Laura Bush (with a dash of Hillary Clinton, if the acknowledgements are to be believed). Then there's the problem of the protagonist - sweet but somewhat dull and morose, and also an ineffectual coward, who throws off this persona when it suits the drama. Why does she stay with the man she knows is a prick who will make evil decisions? in fact this is so evident that the protagonist, who narrates the book and should have been told to cut her ramblings by about a third, feels the need to argue about it at length, explaining why she couldn't possibly have done anything at any point, despite being a sweet Democrat. Is she, as Joyce Caroll Oates rather charitably suggests, a metaphor for the American people? I've never found Americans that boring, to be frank. And as for the teenage sweetheart thing, I simply don't believe it. The ending is awful, too. My overall impression is of a good writer who picked the wrong subject, and spent far too long trying to make it the right one.
But cheers, Kiwi-in-England - it lasted a few days and stemmed my book drought! And my best mate fancies you just on my description.

Released 12 yrs ago (3/26/2011 UTC) at Waterhouse Pub, St Peter's Square in Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Either to a fellow bookcrosser at the meeting (10.30 in the pub - join us!) or in the wilds of central Manchester afterwards.

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