Saturday, July 11, 2009

{American Wife or "I really want to piss off Laura Bush}


I chose the book American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld {who's a girl for those who were wondering} for July book club. I liked Prep {by Curtis Sittenfeld also} but didn't love it so I thought we should give this book a try.

Ok, I didn't like it at all. I did read the whole thing but it took me about 6 weeks. It was not a book that pulls you in and makes you want to keep reading {like all of the Twilight books or Tori Spelling books :)} .

This book is loosely based on the life of Laura Bush and if I were her I would be pissed. There are quite a few similarities to Laura's life but the author takes liberties of added a few extras which, in my opinion, are less than flattering to the wife of a former uberconservative president. You think the book is going to be about her life as a first lady and that is only 1/4 of the book, at the very end, and that's what I wanted to read about. I knew that she had more liberal views than the Bush's so I thought it would be interesting to read about how she dealt with them. Not the case at all.

I think it is kind of sad that the author lacked creativity so much that she just took a true story and added a couple of extra items and changed names. I was very disappointed in this book and won't be recommending it to anyone and I think I will wait on picking a book club book for a while :)


2 comments:

Preppy Pink Crocodile said...

I'm sorry. I liked but didn't love Prep, too. If it makes you feel better, I don't think American Wife was meant to be a book about Laura Bush. I think it was just as you said losely base or "inspired" by her. So not really about her. But if you were expecting a biography I am sure it was a big let down. That probably doesn't make it any better for you now that you are finished reading though, huh?

Steph said...

Oh...this is our book for August, I am about to start reading it soon. Disappointed, as you are nbot the only one to say you didn't enjoy the book. I was kind of hoping it would have a lot about her as First Lady, guess not. Darn.