Readers Place

Curtis Sittenfeld talks about her book American Wife:

What has been the most surprising reaction you’ve had about your book since it was published?

I’ve had separate women tell me that reading Alice Blackwell’s story made them want to be either a better wife or a better mother. Obviously, Alice isn’t a perfect person, but I like it that readers recognize—and admire—her essential kindness. I wouldn’t mind being more like her either!

It is quite hard to define what kind of novel American Wife is – was this something you were conscious of while writing?

Yes, definitely. I was pretty secretive while writing, but on the occasions I did describe it to someone, I’d say, “It’s a fictional retelling of the life of Laura Bush; I’m a Democrat; it’s not satire.” I think those last two elements are what make the book confusing, that I’m someone who didn’t vote for George W. Bush but I’m still not out to mock his wife.

How do you feel about critics interpreting AMERICAN WIFE as a deliberate novelisation of Laura Bush’s life?

I’d say it’s a fair interpretation (see above for my own description of the book). The important part to me, though, is that it really is a novelisation—I’m definitely not pretending this is a biography that will provide juicy insider gossip. Instead, it’s an attempt to imagine what life could be like, but not necessarily what life IS like, for a complicated and mysterious yet highly visible person.

If American Wife was being made into a film, who would you like to see play Alice and Charlie?

I think Rachel McAdams, who was in “The Notebook” and “Wedding Crashers”, is really talented and could play Alice at all different ages. As for Charlie, someone who could be both handsome and swaggering—maybe Ryan Phillippe or James Franco? Or maybe those two are too sweet-seeming.

Which book (fiction or non-fiction) do you wish you had written?

Oh, there are so many! There’s an American novel I love called “The Quality of Life Report” by Meghan Daum. It’s about a young New York TV reporter who decides, mostly for financial reasons, to move to the Midwest (to a fictitious city based on Lincoln, Nebraska), where her own ideas about herself are upended. It’s just really smart and funny. And some British writers I think are great are Tessa Hadley, Rachel Cusk, Kate Atkinson, and Alan Hollinghurst.

Which part of AMERICAN WIFE was it hardest for you to write? Why?

For some reason, I wrote and rewrote the section where Alice first meets her in-laws. I couldn’t decide whether to set it at their regular house or their vacation house (I ultimately opted for the latter) or what the structure should be or the characters’ conversations should be about. It was such a mess that I thought I’d never get it to make sense, but in the end, a lot of readers have told me that’s their favourite part of the whole book.

Some of the sex scenes in your novel have been deemed quite controversial. Did you think they would get this kind of reaction?

I tried not to imagine ANYONE reading the sex scenes while I wrote them, or I’d have been too embarrassed to keep going. But I think they’re important because Alice and Charlie get engaged after knowing each other six weeks (something Laura and George Bush also did), so it seems likely physical attraction was a component of that. And those encounters do seem so momentous to the people in the relationship—the first kiss, the first time they say I love you, and all the more graphic stuff. I tried to focus on the things Alice herself would focus on.

Can you relate to Alice in any kind of way?

I definitely can—I couldn’t ever write an entire book about someone I didn’t identify with at all. Like Alice, I taught and I like kids (and often find them very funny), and also like Alice, I grew up reading a lot and I believe it’s made me a more compassionate person.