Curtis Sittenfeld

What sparked American Wife?
It's loosely inspired by the life of Laura Bush, but I'm a liberal
Democrat who definitely didn't vote for her husband either time.
However, once he was elected, I read articles indicating that Mrs. Bush was a more interesting, complicated person than I'd have guessed – and possibly that her politics aren't entirely the same as George Bush's – so I tried to imagine what life would be like for someone like her.

Please set the scene of the novel for us.
It follows Alice Lindgren, an only child born in 1940s Wisconsin to middle class parents, as her life takes unexpected and extraordinary turns – starting with a tragic car accident when she's 17 and ending when she ultimately finds herself living in the White House as first lady of the United States.


Do you have a particular attachment to any of the characters or places in the novel? If so, which one(s) and why?
I like Alice a lot – I find her kind and principled. And I even like the fact that it's unclear how complicit she is in the trajectory of her life because I think that's true for all of us, that it's difficult to sort out what are decisions and what's chance.

What are you reading at the moment?
I recently read a story collection, Spoiled, by Caitlin Macy, that's
getting a lot of buzz in the U.S., and I thought it was great. It's about privileged, difficult girls and women, which is a potentially annoying topic that Macy writes about so intelligently you can't put it down.


What are you working on now?
I had a baby in early March, so I'm working on learning to be a mother. So far, I'd say it's much harder than writing novels, but of course a baby is much cuter than pieces of paper.