Book Blurb:
In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise: Life magazine has covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she’s attending Yale Law School, and she’s on the forefront of student activism and the women’s rights movement. And then she meets Bill Clinton. A handsome, charismatic southerner and fellow law student, Bill is already planning his political career. In each other, the two find a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical connection that neither has previously experienced.In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times; although she said no more than once, as we all know, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton. But in Curtis Sittenfeld’s powerfully imagined tour-de-force of fiction, Hillary takes a different road. Feeling doubt about the prospective marriage, she endures their devastating breakup and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail—one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that involves crossing paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the tradeoffs all of us must make in building a life.
My Review: 4 stars
Rodham is a compelling, thought provoking, creative re-imagining of “what might have been” if Hillary Rodham had not married Bill Clinton. Sittenfeld’s writing is engaging as she brilliantly weaves this alternative fictional life story with actual historical events. The story is narrated by Hillary and is told in alternate timelines. The first part of the story deals with Hillary and Bill’s relationship back in their college days, primarily sticking to the facts, and the second part delves into the alternate, fictional fantasy as a result of Hillary’s choices.
This book was an ambitious undertaking by Sittenfeld. It was thoroughly researched and was inspired! The author gets into Bill and Hillary’s minds with remarkable detail. She nailed the characterization of Bill and his womanizing. The narration felt authentic and the author captured Hillary’s voice. In the beginning of the book, I wondered how much was factual and how much was a re-creation of history. Some parts in the second half of the story were a little slower paced, with some repetitive details of the inner workings of political campaigns, but I was still entertained. Some of the story was set in Chicago, and I got a kick when the names of local and national politicians came up. Even Trump makes an appearance.
The author’s version of Hillary is not always depicted in a sympathetic light, but is presented with all of her flaws. I have not read the previous biographies of Hillary Clinton, so Rodham made me feel like I had more of an understanding of her, and why she is both admired and vilified. It was a complex and realistic portrait, and the characterization gave me a glimpse into Hillary’s struggles with self discovery, ambition, determination and most importantly, the loneliness she felt as “she hoped to gain entry to the highest office of power on behalf of an entire gender.”
I don’t want to spoil the fun by saying anything about the plot and all of the surprises along the way! There were many universal themes throughout the book including: female ambition, feminism, the quest for political power, and the compromises women have to make in a man’s world. It also makes the reader think of what could happen if you make different life choices.
Hillary supporters and political junkies will certainly enjoy this book, but it is a great read for everyone, no matter what your political leanings are. I was excited to find out that Hulu is developing this novel into a scripted drama series. I highly recommend this book. Review by Guest Fairy Ronna.
Quotes I liked:
Maybe life isn’t about the absence of embarrassment, it’s about the mastery of embarrassment.”
“If I was no longer his girlfriend, and never his wife, I was not responsible for his behavior, not even by extension. The absolution was my reward for losing him; in the years to come, it sometimes seemed like the only reward.”
“I’ve learned that very little from the past is truly sealed.”
“Truly, there was no bottom to the coarseness, ruthlessness, and disloyalty in politics.”
“I know that something being true can’t make people believe it.”
“…there is something about another person caring when you go to sleep at night and when you wake up in the morning – caring not because of what they need from you but just because they love you – that is a novelty for me. There’s a sweetness and solace in it that I don’t take for granted.”
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