Book Review: Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

Book: 66/150

Rating: 3.5/5

Summary: 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.

Thoughts: Okay. This is a hard book for me to rate and review. This was THE BOOK OF 2020 FOR ME. I was SO excited for it to come out. And then I read it. And I liked it? But I didn't like it. I DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT. So we're going to do a good old pros and cons list:

What I liked:

• The concept, and the whole blend of history and fiction throughout the bookThe blend of reality and fiction throughout the book.

• The writing and following Hillary's life

• The ending

What was a miss for me:

• How prominent Bill was throughout the book and Hillary's life

My main qualm was that if this was essentially a fan fiction of Hillary’s life, she is still haunted in a way from Bill’s decisions that she was in real life. It’s like she has one little skeleton in her closet and that will affect her for the rest of her life. I guess in a way that is the frustrating and unfortunate reality of women in politics.

I encourage you to pick this one up if you’re a fan of HRC and biographical fiction! It was fun to reimagine what the current political landscape would look like, and to me, HRC is a badass and inspiration and it’s great to see that in this “fictionalized” account.

PRO TIP: pre-order and buy through your local bookstores. SUPPORT LOCAL! Also! They are way quicker at getting books! I got this one on release day, and I know shipping with other major retailers has been very slow.