She writes in the sharp, realistic tradition of Philip Roth and Richard Fordclear, unpretentious prose metaphors so spot-on you barely notice them. Maureen Dowd,The New York Times 'Brilliantâ€¦ triumphâ€¦Curtis Sittenfeld has provided a plausible secret history of an American embarrassment and a grand entertainment.' Joe Klein, Time Magazine 'A smart and sophisticated portrait of a high-profile political wifeâ€¦Sittenfeld has an astonishing gift for creating characters that take up residence in readers' heads.' Connie Schultz,Washington Post Book World 'Sittenfeld boldly imagines the inner life of a first ladyâ€¦an intimate and daring storyâ€¦American Wife is a vicarious experience, an up-close portrait of the interior life of a very complicated womanâ€¦cinematic.' USA Today 'The novel, Sittenfeld's most fully realized yet, artfully evokes the painful reverberations of the past.' New Yorker 'Compelling.enormously sympathetic.Sittenfeld's remarkable gifts as a storyteller draw you back into the fictional world of Alice Blackwell.

Sittenfeld was not out to sensationalize but to sympathize.

'A well-researched book that imagines what lies behind that placid faÃ§ade of the first ladyâ€¦Ms.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld