Wife and times

Q: In 2004, you wrote an essay for Salon about your fascination with Laura Bush. Would you say American Wife had its genesis in that?

A: Yes, I guess. I wrote this article for Salon that was kind of about coming out of the closet as a liberal Democrat who likes Laura Bush. In that piece, I said, “Her life is like a great novel.” Two years later, I was suddenly like, “Hey, that’s a novel I should write!” It was so out of character for me – I’m usually really secretive when I’m writing. I never would’ve posted my structure online if I’d known I was going to end up using it!

Q: Writing about such a public figure seems like a major leap for you, compared to the introspective, isolated characters in your previous novels.

A: It was a different experience from writing my first two books. I mean, not only was there much more research, but this character was very different. She’s sweeter and nicer and less grumpy than my other protagonists. Occasionally, I’d have the urge to have her make an unflattering observation about another character, and then I’d stop myself ‘cause I realized she just wouldn’t do that. It was a challenge, because I would’ve made those sorts of observations. [Laughs.]

(Random House Canada)

Q: How important was it to you to wrest the story in American Wife back from the factual details you borrowed from Laura Bush’s biography?

A: Oh, it was very important to wrest it back. I see this book as 85 per cent made up. It is loosely inspired by Laura Bush insofar as I saw her as a certain person, or a kind of person facing certain issues, but I made a huge imaginative leap to figure out what it would be like for someone in similar circumstances. People shouldn’t read it looking to learn about the history of the Bush family or for insights into Laura Bush.

The book has four sections, and each one does centre around a major event that did happen in Laura Bush’s life, but for the most part, everything else is made up. All the secondary characters are completely made up; even some of what would be considered primary characters are made up. All the dialogue, all the scenes are made up. The whole thing is set in Wisconsin instead of Texas. There were choices I could’ve made in small ways – like, I considered giving Alice Blackwell the same birthday as Laura Bush – but that seemed both unnecessary and a bit creepy. It’s not like that would’ve made it more interesting to read. Anything personal or trivial [about the Bushes] I disregarded. I’d only keep small details that were really interesting.

For example, when he’s on the campaign trail, the character of Charlie Blackwell carries his own special pillow. I’d read that while I was doing research on George W. Bush and thought it was so colourful that I wanted to keep it.

Actually, Hillary Clinton’s autobiography was one of the books I read for research, and I stole some details from that. At one point, she was in Eritrea, and while she was there, the women threw popcorn at her as a greeting. I loved that. Another time, Hillary and [her daughter] Chelsea were in a hotel and Chelsea mentioned that she’d heard the staff had drained the pools and replaced all the water with bottled water on their behalf.

Q: One interviewer suggested you’d created an idealized version of Laura Bush, one whom you invested with quite a strong liberal bias. Were you trying to resolve your fascination with the woman with her support for a man whose politics and policies are so opposed to your own?

A: [Laughs.] I’m not crazy! I’m not under the illusion that anything I write has anything to do with Laura Bush’s behaviour in real life.

Q: Oliver Stone’s biopic about George Bush, W, comes out next month; back in 2001, the men behind South Park created the short-lived satirical sitcom That’s My Bush! The Bush administration has inspired quite a number of contemporaneous fictional accounts. What’s that about?

A: That’s a good question. Obviously, Bush is an incredibly unpopular president. He’s especially unpopular amongst liberals, and there’s an overlap between liberals and artists. But why Bush in particular? I’m not sure. It seems like there have been pretty dramatic changes in this country since he came into power. His administration has made major choices – things like pursuing the Iraq war and curtailing civil liberties – that have affected the way America is viewed by other countries. They’ve caused changes even in terms of our own self-identity as Americans. So maybe we need to re-establish our national identity through art. And maybe, you know, there’s sort of a greater sense of disconnection from the government…

For her new novel, Curtis Sittenfeld drew inspiration from Laura Bush, current first lady of the United States of America. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Q: What are your favourite fictional details that you invented to distinguish these characters from the real-life Bushes?

A: I like that Charlie Blackwell’s afraid of the dark. I find that endearing. I like the character of Alice’s grandmother. She’s opinionated, she’s a voracious reader and she says what she thinks, but she surprises you – it’s hard to predict what she’s going to think. I like Alice’s sister-in-law Jadey. She’s more boisterous and a bit raunchier than Alice.

It’s funny – in the States, this book has gotten attention for being salacious, even though the main character is actually terribly reserved. I think all the talk about the sex in the book is very silly. It’s really ridiculous. If people come to this book thinking it’ll be really raunchy, they’ll be disappointed. There’s a sex scene maybe every 100 pages, which means you have a lot of domestic life to slog through before you get to the salacious bits.

Q: Was it your decision to put out American Wife right in the thick of national convention fever?

A: It was my publisher’s decision to release the book this week. I always thought it needed to come out in 2008. Actually… [Laughs.] I figured I should write it in 2008 or not write it at all. It seemed so obvious that it needed to come out [while Bush was still in office]. I think – or I hope – that people will still be interested in reading it after Jan. 21, or whenever the next inauguration is. My editor was noting that in some of the early press, they’re reviewing the idea more than they are reviewing the book.

Q: Before you released American Wife, many readers probably had you pegged as a chick-lit writer.

A: I certainly feel like I’ve been lucky as a writer and things could’ve gone differently for me. I don’t think that it was a foregone conclusion that my first book would get that much attention. I know a lot of people whose first books have dropped without a trace.

In the future, I might write books that have elements of teen-girl angst in them, but I don’t think it’ll be the driving force in my books anymore. They may be more externally based. Honestly, I’m not sure. I’ll probably just keep writing, though I think my pace so far has been rather misrepresentative. I doubt I’ll put out another book for at least another four years.