NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of American Wife and Eligible . . . He proposed. She said no. And it changed her life forever. “A deviously clever what if.”—O: The Oprah Magazine“Immersive, escapist.”—Good Morning America“Ingenious.”—The New York TimesNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • NPR • The Washington Post • Marie Claire • Cosmopolitan (UK) • Town & … THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • NPR • The Washington Post • Marie Claire • Cosmopolitan (UK) • Town & Country • New York Post
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.
Brilliantly weaving a riveting fictional tale into actual historical events, Curtis Sittenfeld delivers an uncannily astute and witty story for our times. In exploring the loneliness, moral ambivalence, and iron determination that characterize the quest for political power, as well as both the exhilaration and painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world still run mostly by men, Rodham is a singular and unforgettable novel.
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I was gripped and enthralled by the bold premise of this novel ‘what if Hillary hadn’t married Bill’. I had to keep reminding myself it was fiction and that real-life Hillary did marry Bill and they are still together. The author draws you in subtly because the early chapters covering the couple’s meeting at Yale Law School and the detail about their early years is a matter of record and must, I assume, be accurate. There’s a temptation to believe you’re reading biography so once the author takes off on an entirely fictional trajectory I found I had to continually adjust my frame of reference.
The insights into what it means to have a political life in the US are fascinating: the sacrifice of anything personal and private; the fundraising; schmoozing donors; the miles covered by plane and road; the media’s endless appetite for scandal. Can’t find one? No problem they’ll find a non-event, dress it up and turn it into the kind of fake news that will hurt both politically and personally. Sittenfeld demonstrates how female candidates suffer a hundred times more abuse and trolling than male candidates – even when those men are actual sexual predators. Who would want to put themselves in that vulnerable position when the world is full of keyboard warriors and eegits who like to chant abuse at political rallies? It was chilling to reflect on what this means for democracy.
When the story moved on to Bill and Hillary’s lives when they were no longer together, Sittenfeld invented new relationships for them. The novel is populated with characters who are living, famous people, including some who are or were or might have been presidents or vice presidents. The thing I couldn’t get my head around was how all this sits with the disclaimer we authors have in the front of our novels: ‘This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead is entirely coincidental.’ There are well-known characters presented in a less than flattering light who have a reputation for being litigious. I’d love to know how the publisher’s lawyers advised on this.
The voice of Hillary Rodham in the novel sounds eerily authentic. Sittenfeld doesn’t shy away from the challenges faced by a female politician on the road right down to the minutiae of needing a hairdresser and make up artist on her staffer team because not having these things professionally done means commentators will say she looks tired and question her health and energy! I read this book in about four evenings which is super-fast for me. Highly recommended.
3.5 stars
I’m in two minds about this book. I enjoyed reading Sittenfeld’s imagined Hillary’s life and political career had she not married Bill, her meeting and subsequent encounters with Donald, but couldn’t divorce myself from the real Hillary Rodham-Clinton. The first third reads like a biography, a lot of factual info and then segues into a mostly believable narrative. Not sure what I expected, but I think I would have been more satisfied with a completely fictional account. Sittenfeld is a clever and entertaining writer and I’ve enjoyed her other books.
I knew I would love this as much as I adored The American Wife. Ms. Sittenfeld has created the sort of Alt Universe I can both get behind and believe in.
Terrific imagining of the emotional territory between Bill and Hillary. As the book diverged from actual history, there were some brilliant twists and turns. Thoroughly enjoyable read.
Curtis Sittenfeld is such an incredible author and I was riveted to this book throughout. I think reading it now, post-Trump, actually magnifies the impact of the story she crafts around an alternative history of Hillary Rodham. It was sometimes hard to remember it was fiction; the story and the characters all felt immensely real. Powerful and well worth reading.
Like AMERICAN WIFE, RODHAM filled me with alarm, not because of the story but because of the risks this author was taking. Whereas AMERICAN WIFE was a poke at George W. Bush, RODHAM accuses a former president of rape.
But once I was able to put these feelings aside, I loved this novel. Ms. Sittenfeld is a gifted mimic. Not only does she get Donald Trump down pat (with his peculiar use of the word beautiful), she also nails Bill Clinton. Indeed, Bill is one of the most compelling characters in this novel, taking up a great deal of psychic space with his outsize charisma. I was absolutely gripped by this novel whenever Bill was around.
Ms. Sittenfeld also caught Hillary’s emotional dimensions, her awkwardnesses, her shyness, her repressed emotions (especially as a young woman) as evidenced in her speech. Her way of thanking people, for example, was to say repeatedly “Thank you so much!” She almost never got more personal than that.
For those of us who were absolutely stunned & devastated by Hillary’s defeat, this book is much needed medicine, especially as it so clearly shows that one of the her greatest weaknesses was Bill. Five stars. #curtissittenfeld #rodham
Hillary without Bill. A terrific “Sliding Doors” style novel of what could have been.
Well, this was surprisingly good! I really loved it. At times a bit harsh, and with Hillary making mistakes along the way – it’s not wish fulfilment. But it’s what should have happened. (If that makes sense.)
I loved Rodham. I’ve always been a fan of Hillary Clinton, ever since she fought so hard for health care in the early 90’s. But I was kind of tired of hearing about her, after the 2016 campaign. But this novel made me appreciate her all over again.
Curtis Sittenfeld does a great job of imagining Hillary’s childhood, young adulthood, and romance with Bill Clinton. Brilliant young girls who grew up when Hillary did, and even now to I hope a lesser extent, feel such pressure to hide their intelligence, and can find it an impediment to romance. This novel really captures that dilemma.
Rodham also captures the intensity and passion of Hilary’s love for Bill, and how torn and bewildered she must have felt when she discovered he was a sex addict. (The book describes him as such, and I basically buy it.) I especially appreciated that the novel doesn’t totally trash Bill, but sees him as a well meaning guy with problems he would desperately like to overcome, but feels unable to. The novel does indicate Bill committed some despicable acts…
One very fun aspect of the novel is, it asks the question: how would American history have been changed if Hillary broke up with Bill after law school and never married him? If he had married another woman, would he ever have been elected president?
In the novel, Hilary goes on to run for president one day. I personally would have found it a tad more believable if she’d become a judge and even a Supreme Court justice one day. But I did enjoy seeing her run for president in this alternate world.
Rodham combines great personal stories for Hillary and Bill with an intriguing alternate history of the last thirty years in the United States.
Curtis Sittenfeld has written a novel with an audacious and intriguing premise: What if Hillary Clinton had never married Bill and what would that seemingly insignificant decision mean for American politics – and for Hillary herself- in the decades to come? I had seriously complicated feelings about this book before I picked it up, mostly because it feels ethically dubious to speculate about someone’s personal relationships in so much depth and to draw conclusions about the impact those relationships have had on global politics. And yet I still found myself buying it and, once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop. Maybe this is just the part of me that still feels angry and sad about the 2016 US election and stressed about the 2020 one but I couldn’t resist being pulled into about an alternate universe where American politics looks so different and yet so frustratingly similar. I was totally captivated by this story, needing to know what was going to happen next and how it was going to end. One thing that really struck me was how well Sittenfeld seems to know her subject. I read Clinton’s book What Happened shortly after it came out and I’m amazed by how accurately Sittenfeld has captured her voice. It almost felt like it was really her speaking. I was also impressed that Sittenfeld resisted the temptation to make an angel or a martyr out of her version of Hillary. Like her real life equivalent, she is diligent, intelligent and eager to change the world but she’s also flawed. She makes bad decisions, she hurts people and she’s willing to compromise on her morals to get to where she wants to be. I found myself relating to and rooting for the fictional Hillary, as I did her real life counterpart.
This is a fictional story about Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mixed with truth about Hillary’s past and run for President is a fictional story of what would happen if she didn’t marry Bill Clinton and instead won the Presidency in 2016. Spanning the years of 1971-2016, it tells a mixed fact/fictional story of Hillary and her life in the spotlight. This is the author’s take on what would happen if her life had taken a differnt path and she had not become Hillary Clinton.
This book wasn’t good. At all. I had high hopes for it – thought it would be a neat idea to read about a woman I admire who did actually win the Presidency. What it would have been like for her if she had not become a Clinton and stood on her own through her Senate and Presidency runs. But the book had way way way too much sex in it and made Hilary more of a wanting girl than a powerful Senator and President. I mean letting Donal Trump endorse her? Large sections of the book actually including conversations with him? REALLY?
The second half of this book is a complete mess. I could hardly finish it. I should have quit. I am a big fan of Hilary Clinton. What the author made up about her thinking his rewrite of her history would be better was way off the mark.
I adored ‘American wife’ so I looked forward to reading this one very much. I initially found Rodham slightly more …awkward as Hilary Clinton as a character is so familiar to us and there were points I did wonder if it was fair to present an alternate history of someone living’s life. But doubts were soon cast aside as I was swept along by the fully-rounded characters and the story – and the many messages and brilliant observations that the book is full of. I can imagine this book is quite the old ‘marmite’ book, you’ll love it or you’ll hate it – I found it fascinating and I loved the world it held up to examination.
Good book built on an interesting fictional premise ; the author did a good job of creating a tale at that seems to be at least as probable as the true story.
In her 2008 novel American Wife, Sittenfeld accomplished something I still can’t figure out–a 600+ page turner about a “quiet” first-lady based on Laura Bush who kept a low profile and and her thoughts and heart hidden. It was wonderful and I highly recommend it. It’s obvious the author was reaching for something similar, with perhaps more zest, with Rodham, a fictional “what if” in the spirit of Phillip Roth. What if Hillary hadn’t married Bill.?Readers appear to be split about the two halves of the book (before and after Bill). I enjoyed the first in the spirit of American Wife. Yes, we know a lot of it, but the human backstory is still fascinating and when Hillary leaves Bill you feel all the pain and regret of her own “what if’s.” The second half is a scenario you have to buy into, and now that the author has reinvented the world, the reader will be tempted to as well. Would I have her carry this torch? for example. No spoilers, but it might be a can’t win situation.–satisfying to some readers and infuriating to others. Just as I wonder how she so brilliantly pulled off the American Wife story, I wonder why Rodham isn’t as compelling. Perhaps because we know the subject so well and have all formed our own opinions about what Hillary should or should not have done in real life that it’s a bit of a challenge to stick with someone else’s vision. All that said, it’s worth reading, especially if it sends you back to American Wife.
Interesting