Why a novel based on Laura Bush?
Curtis Sittenfeld: Well, I wrote an article for Salon in February 2004 where, because I’m a Democrat, I described my admiration for Laura Bush as the “love that dare not speak its name.” In that article I unwittingly wrote that Laura Bush’s life is like a novel. A few years passed and I thought, “Oh, it’s like a novel that I should actually write.” (Article continued below…) How much of “American Wife” is fiction? I would say probably 85 percent of it is fiction. There’s nothing I know about the Bushes that the average person couldn’t find in a published book. Some say your book is what liberals hope Laura Bush is actually like. I don’t think my book has a particular agenda. I don’t know the inner secrets of Laura Bush, and I don’t think it matters that much if she’s actually more or less conservative than her husband—especially at this point. I don’t think that it’s clearly a book for only Democrats or only Republicans. It’s more for fiction lovers. Alice Blackwell seems very suppre
