American Wife

American wife by Curtis Sittenfeld follows its main character, Alice Blackwell, over her first sixty-one years.  We meet her where the end of the book leaves off, as the wife of The President of the United States but then Alice takes us back with her as she re-evaluates her life and remembers all of the colourful characters that have helped mold her into what she is today.  These events and people that cause her to question whether she really is deserving of the great pleasures and successes she experiences later in life.

American Wife consists of four parts which are titled with the addresses she lives her life at.  First is her parent’s house followed a few years later by the apartment where she resides when she first meets her future husband, Charlie Blackwell.  Her third home is the beautiful, cozy and sometimes too big but not quite big enough McMansion where Charlie and Alice start to raise their daughter Ella (who at times reminded me of what little I know about Chelsea Clinton) and begin to learn about each other in a way that changes them for good but also for better.  Of course the fourth part is titled 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the address of The White House.  

American Wife is a work of fiction, reportedly inspired by Laura Bush and her life. The first two parts of the book I really enjoyed as a an easy page turner. The third part of the book offered a fascinating insight into a life that may resemble the life of the Bush's or people of their social standing. I found the last part of the book to be very introspective, slow and lacking in plot and direction - there were some interesting bits from Alice in this part where she claims that all she ever did was marry Charlie, it was the American public that made him president and therefore they could not hold her accountable for his decisions and actions.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the characters portrayed in it, but it does make you wonder who would want to be President (or more so, married to one)? I wonder whether Michelle Obama regrets the path that they have taken and wishes for her previous life back?