Is it me or is everyone in London ill? Coughing and spluttering on the tube, the stockpile of Lemsips and throat spray in my desk are building up. This week has been truly grim, this is also coupled with the fact that it is the most depressing week of the year. Not much to be excited about really. Struck down by the dreaded lurghi I managed to make it to the weekend when I could collapse.
It was my friend’s birthday so cocktails and heels were wheeled out even though I wasn’t sure that Paracetemol is something you should be lacing with a fancy umbrella clad ‘Mai Tai’. In preventing myself from being the next ‘young Hollywood tragedy’ I called it a night early. Reluctantly however, as we were in one of South London’s hidden secrets ‘South London Pacific’, the most amazing Tiki paradise South of the river with cheap and potent cocktails and some of the cheesiest music [I have a vague memory of jumping around to Lu Lu’s Shout].
Thankfully I was sans hangover the next morning, and headed to The Royal Oak at Clapham North for Sunday Lunch with Bloody Mary’s as you get a free bottle of prosecco for lunches over ten it’s well worth it, plus the pies are served in these old grandma type dishes! Atferwards, I enjoyed sticking my pumps in the frozen lake in Clapham common on the tipsy walk home [my friend is taking a photography class so I chatted to the ducks whilst she took photos of bins and benches to master her ‘depth' or 'vision’ or something]. The duck and I didn’t really get it.
If you haven’t been ill in bed on a duvet day – look out and get yourself a copy of American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. This is Sittenfeld’s third novel and honestly didn’t know much about it until I was handed it and dutifully told I needed to read it. The book seems to have captured a number of people, a girl I work with gushed ‘I can’t put it down! It’s amazing!’.
Her first book Prep received mixed reviews and she went onto write Man of My Dreams which again was received pretty much the same way as Prep. I don’t feel that The American Wife is really open for a mixed review, it is from cover to cover a triumph of a read. Brilliantly written this is not a heavy political novel although it is based on the life of Laura Bush [which I didn’t realise until I was a good halfway through].
I don’t know much about Laura Bush apart from the fact she is married to a man I think is a total imbecile to put it lightly. I suppose we have all asked the question ‘How could someone be married to this man?’ and that is what the book tackles. Laura Bush is portrayed as Alice Lindgren the small town girl who is involved in a devastating car crash which ends the life of her boyfriend. She discovers her grandmother has a lesbian partner in Chicago and due to unfortunate circumstances has to have an abortion. These events shape her early life and lead to the point where she enters a romance with Charlie Blackwell at 30. Charlie Blackwell is the playboy son of the rich political Blackwell clan. The story follows Charlie and Alice’s life as they head to becoming the President and First Lady and the love that cements them together.
The real triumph of the book is Alice’s character as she fights between her love of Charlie and her moral opinions. Her devotion to her husband and child against the image that the world has portrayed of her. Far from a Bush attack this book looks at the real issue that the American people voted for him to be President. Would it have mattered even if she voted against him? Is it her right to influence him when she holds not elected office herself? Would you leave the man you loved just because other people didn’t like it?
Although this book seemed to be a long read I whizzed through it in no time, unable to put it down. The characters are impeccable and you feel you are a fly on the wall as their lives go by. I think there is a little bit of Alice in all of us and that is why we can sympathise so much with her character and the dilemmas she faces. It is a very endearing read and I even found Charlie quite amusing! This is a book that will stay with you for a long time written from the other side of the fence we never get to see. – Lauren
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
The American by Henry James
Weekly Roundup
