“AMERICAN WIFE” by Curtis Sittenfeld

When I read the book, I did not know that the main female character was based (more or less) on Laura Bush (the wife of the American president George W. Bush). I also did not know that the story of the book was based on their life as a couple.
For me, it was a perfect love and life story.

I loved the way Curtis Sittenfeld wrote her book.
Due to her writing style, I understood her heroine, Alice. It was effortless for me to empathize with Alice but also to respect her for fighting to maintain her marriage with Charlie.

The passage I choose is Alice’s first date with Charlie:

Charlie:
” – I’ll go settle the tab. Then we head back to Madison- I’m happy to drive.
We go to your apartment, we take off all our clothes, we get in bed, and I show you that Republicans do know a little something about a little something.
He paused. – After you’re  finished eating, of course.”

Alice: 
“Had I expressed shock or distaste, it would have been disingenuous- enough had happened in my life already that was far more shocking and distasteful than a sexual proposition.
And besides, he’d sounded so boyish, so sweet, even.

Then, too, I suppose I might have feigned offence not because I really was offended but because I wanted him to think I was, for propriety’s sake.
But this seemed silly. I was thirty-one. To hell with my concerns about leapfrogging over the stages of acquaintanceship, to hell with making an argument- the argument against dating Charlie- that I didn’t want to win.

Plus, Charlie was an incredibly handsome man. 
I wanted to take off all my clothes and climb in bed with him. 
I set down my cheeseburger. – I’m finished eating.”

Published by Black Swan, 2009