American Wife

It seemed like a good idea: a sexed-up, fictionalized autobiography of Laura Bush. For eight years the First Lady has been the "silent partner" in a White House that can boast that it changed the course of history. Her status as a librarian, literacy advocate, and David McCullough's #1 fan is something neither Red nor Blue State readers can find fault with. Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife is enjoying the publicity and bestseller status (#3 on The New York Times Fiction List for the week of September 21) not many new historical novels receive, but the book makes for unsatisfying, untitillating reading. This has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with structure.

Ms. Sittenfeld is a better writer than American Wife implies. Her debut novel Prep (also a first-person narrative) featured another less-than-perfect heroine, but Lee and the suffocating world she describes was complete. Here, the temptation to re-cast Laura and George as Alice and Charlie Blackwell doesn't go far enough. Implying would have been better than redressing. While facts are intact (a fatal car accident, whirlwind courtship, alcoholism cured by religion, campaigns on the local, state, and federal level, the administration's disastrous policies), the variations on these themes are thin. Some might find the insertion of Cindy Sheehan's plight offensive.

Another weakness in this almost-parallel political universe is its incredulous lack of social history. This 21st century American Wife has more in common with one in a 1950's Douglas Sirk weepie. Adding to the frustration is the leaden, smug dialogue straight out of a book and/or movie sequel where ideas have run their course ond the creator doesn't care as long as the money keeps coming in.

The rowdy Blackwell clan is the only aspect of American Wife that satisfies; they certainly liven up the 500+ pages. Perhaps the Blackwell's crudeness and hypocritical family values are the satire Ms. Sittenfeld was striving for. It's hard to tell, because middle-class Alice's response to marrying the brood's wastrel is whining, a bad enough trait in the real adult world. A reader looking for a creative reaction to the Bush Presidency - or simply a good read - will tire of her nagging narration by the time Alice Blackwell gets to the White House.