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A review by lillimoore
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
2.0
What in the name of all that is holy did I just read?
Despite never having been a fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton (she is far too establishment and moderate for my values), I cannot deny she is an intriguing public figure. So much has been said and made of her by the public and the media that the real person gets lost, buried in heaps of speculation and insinuation. I do have an interest in alternative history as well as in politics, and am looking for some inspiration for a speculative fiction contest I hope to enter, so I picked this up. While I can't say I regret it, I can absolutely say I don't recommend it.
Rodham explores an alternative timeline in which Hillary Rodham dumps sleazy Bill Clinton in the 1970s and pursues her own goals, which eventually and inevitably become political. We follow her from her law school days through to the present day, where she has finally run a successful campaign for the office of President. In between, she falls in love with Bill, follows him from Yale to the University of Alabama where she is a law professor, and eventually leaves him at his own insistence following a series of unfaithful choices and perhaps even sexual assault on his part. Through the years leading up to her presidential campaign, we follow Ms. Rodham back home to Chicago where she continues her career as a law professor at Northwestern until running for the Senate. She remains unmarried and childless but finds her own family in colleagues and friends. When she decides to run for the president, who else is running but Bill Clinton himself? Donald Trump decides to sit this one out, but he puts in a good word for Hill-dog and helps her along the election campaign, and she eventually snags a win that Bill could never in this political climate.
Yes, you read that synopsis right. It wasn't easy to write, because this novel was all over the damn place. This is an unoriginal thought expressed by many reviewers before me, but this read like fan fiction. It devolved more and more with each page. I was invested in the first third of the book despite disturbing sex scenes between Bill and Hillary. I thought, "huh, this book is doing a decent job of humanizing Hillary," who I have struggled to empathize with through the years. I cared about her happiness and rooted for her when she did right by leaving Bill. I became incredibly bored in the middle third of the book, which just dragged on forever and yet somehow said nothing. The end of the book was a total dumpster fire, which is so disappointing because I think it is often clear that Curtis Sittenfeld is a talented writer, but I'm not sure what she was on when she conceived this book. I want some of whatever it was. I promise I won't write on it.
Throughout, Hillary's character fell flat. She was bold and dynamic at the very beginning of the novel, but she just felt like a shell of a person by the end. The way politics were handled in this book was also terrible. Hillary didn't have firm beliefs stemming from her life experiences or a robust campaign platform any of the times she campaigned. So much of this was hollow—the characters, their relationships, their actions, the way they interacted with the world. None of it worked. Honestly, I should say more. I should say it better. A well-written review WOULD say more and say it better, but I'm tired of expending energy on thinking about this book. I just want to move on. Let's just stop here.
Despite never having been a fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton (she is far too establishment and moderate for my values), I cannot deny she is an intriguing public figure. So much has been said and made of her by the public and the media that the real person gets lost, buried in heaps of speculation and insinuation. I do have an interest in alternative history as well as in politics, and am looking for some inspiration for a speculative fiction contest I hope to enter, so I picked this up. While I can't say I regret it, I can absolutely say I don't recommend it.
Rodham explores an alternative timeline in which Hillary Rodham dumps sleazy Bill Clinton in the 1970s and pursues her own goals, which eventually and inevitably become political. We follow her from her law school days through to the present day, where she has finally run a successful campaign for the office of President. In between, she falls in love with Bill, follows him from Yale to the University of Alabama where she is a law professor, and eventually leaves him at his own insistence following a series of unfaithful choices and perhaps even sexual assault on his part. Through the years leading up to her presidential campaign, we follow Ms. Rodham back home to Chicago where she continues her career as a law professor at Northwestern until running for the Senate. She remains unmarried and childless but finds her own family in colleagues and friends. When she decides to run for the president, who else is running but Bill Clinton himself? Donald Trump decides to sit this one out, but he puts in a good word for Hill-dog and helps her along the election campaign, and she eventually snags a win that Bill could never in this political climate.
Yes, you read that synopsis right. It wasn't easy to write, because this novel was all over the damn place. This is an unoriginal thought expressed by many reviewers before me, but this read like fan fiction. It devolved more and more with each page. I was invested in the first third of the book despite disturbing sex scenes between Bill and Hillary. I thought, "huh, this book is doing a decent job of humanizing Hillary," who I have struggled to empathize with through the years. I cared about her happiness and rooted for her when she did right by leaving Bill. I became incredibly bored in the middle third of the book, which just dragged on forever and yet somehow said nothing. The end of the book was a total dumpster fire, which is so disappointing because I think it is often clear that Curtis Sittenfeld is a talented writer, but I'm not sure what she was on when she conceived this book. I want some of whatever it was. I promise I won't write on it.
Throughout, Hillary's character fell flat. She was bold and dynamic at the very beginning of the novel, but she just felt like a shell of a person by the end. The way politics were handled in this book was also terrible. Hillary didn't have firm beliefs stemming from her life experiences or a robust campaign platform any of the times she campaigned. So much of this was hollow—the characters, their relationships, their actions, the way they interacted with the world. None of it worked. Honestly, I should say more. I should say it better. A well-written review WOULD say more and say it better, but I'm tired of expending energy on thinking about this book. I just want to move on. Let's just stop here.