Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Rodham: A Novel

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Insightful, Interesting, Incredible

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2020

Full disclosure, I will read anything Curtis Sittenfeld writes. Since PREP, I have been an ardent fan of her books.

With RODHAM, Sittenfeld has really accomplished something remarkable: Who is Hillary without Bill? She hasn't wholly rewritten history, but given Hillary her due. While also delving into the deeply disturbing hatred for Hillary by a large swath of middle class America.

The novel starts slow, but really picks up steam once Bill is out of the picture... I was reading late into the night hoping for a better outcome than the reality of 2016. This is an entertaining book... even if you are one of those folks who hate Hillary, you may come away from this book with a better understanding of her. This fictional account can certainly help one see her as a real person. In it, she is defined by her competence, rather than "-gate" after "-gate" after "-gate."

Highly recommended!

57 people found this helpful

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Genevieve

Misses the point in ways that border on offensive

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2020

*Spoilers in review* I preordered this book and really looked forward to it, but ultimately it was very disappointing. The first half of the novel, which mirrors Hillary Rodham Clinton’s actual life is fun to read- it was enjoyable to see her feelings about parts of her life imagined, and I enjoyed it for the same reason I like shows like The Crown. It’s always interesting to imagine how people who have lead notable lives feel about it.

The second half of the novel is a giant mess. In rewriting Clinton’s history, Sittenfield has her make decisions completely at odds with who she is as a person. Erasing Carol Moseley Braun? Having Bill Clinton run against her for president and lead crowds in misogynistic chants forcing her to seek help from... Donald Trump?

It’s so poorly thought through and doesn’t make logical sense when you consider how misogyny, racism, and other forms of oppression actually work. I put the book down angry that I’d wasted my time and my money on a book that missed the entire point of Clinton’s legacy of building coalitions of people with a goal of making things better, of making the impossible possible.

I’d recommend skipping this if you’re reading it to escape into a better world. This one’s worse.

140 people found this helpful

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algo41

more interesting, less engaging than "American Wife"

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2020

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“Rodham” is more educational, even more interesting, but less engaging as a novel than Sittenfeld’s “American Wife”. Perhaps my reaction is because I did not like fictional Hillary all that much, and perhaps that is due to sexism, certainly the book makes a strong case that this could be. Anyway, what particularly bothered me is the young woman who could make statements like the following: “But I tended to feel excitement for the other person in inverse proportion to his excitement for me.” “I had discovered that the key to opening the door of dating was to agree to go out with boys and men to whom I was not physically attracted.” Now, it is unfair to single out such remarks by a person frustrated at the time by her romantic life, but still. As many other readers noted, the novel is definitely better when Bill Clinton is mostly out of the picture.

Having said all that, the fictional Hillary is a well drawn, complex person, not idealized, but not one tarred by anything unethical; she did have one lapse of judgment concerning a junior staff member. Insight into what it is like to run an election campaign, especially when you are very conscientious, was compelling. The novel is extremely well plotted. Jumping back and forth in time so frequently bothered me some - it usually does not bother me when novels do that; perhaps it was because the book jumps between two campaigns.

18 people found this helpful

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LM Marsh

Hillary Without Bill Could Have Been Mundane...

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2020

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I have so much to say here...
I am not inherently a @hillaryclinton fan, though I am a #CurtisSittenfeld fan. I would read anything of hers.
The premise, a "Sliding Doors" version of Hillary Rodham's life without Bill Clinton, was super interesting to me. I was thinking a few weeks ago how it's so hard the have a second act... How, when you're in college or are a young adult, your choices are limitless. It's only when you start making choices that your pathway narrows.
In this book, the main character takes a stand on the Bill Clinton character's infidelity and other undesirable bits. She finally puts her foot down and breaks it off with him. He goes on to marry an unassuming woman and have a family, govern Arkansas, run for the presidency unsuccessfully and become a titan of business.
Rodham, in turn, retreats to her hometown of Chicago and becomes a law professor. And for a long time, seems mediocre. I was literally questioning why the book was taking that turn. Was it to prove that that was enough? Forging her own path? I almost put the book down, but suffered through it and there was considerable payoff.
I liked the book. I like the imagined alternative, though it seems a little implausible. I've already heard a bit of controversial talk stemming from one of the fictional turns and its racial undertones. I suspect it's not the last bit of chatter that will come from the plot line.
As an aside, my hypothesis that men in America hate/fear women is proven again and again in almost everything I see/read. Here, in fiction and last night on "Mrs. America" on Hulu, historical fiction. What's a woman to do? #downwiththepatriarchy

5 people found this helpful

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Betty Mason

Great Concept!

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2020

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I pre-ordered this book because I was intrigued by the fact that it was a novel about Hillary, not a biography. But by the time It came out I had forgotten it was a novel and expected a political autobiography!

This book actually does read like an autobiography and I often had to remind myself that it wasn’t. I found myself wondering how much of it was factual and how much was fiction, and actually wished that the whole thing was factual! I’ve always enjoyed political autobiographies so I enjoyed the format quite a bit.

The only thing that threw me off is that the author sometimes diverted from the biographical format by including some very intimate details of Bill and Hillary’s early relationship that weren’t at all necessary. I think that readers could comprehend the depth of their relationship without having to read the imagined details of their sex life! These are details you find in novels, which is fine, but then the entire novel should have read like a novel, with more dialogue and less political details. Otherwise, it would have been best to leave out the distracting sex scenes.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and lost myself in “what if...”

5 people found this helpful

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LAST CHANCE CAFE

WHAT IF HILLARY RODHAM HAD DONE IT ALONE?

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2020

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Oh, the choices we make along the way...The difference it makes to an intelligent, honest woman to have a loving mother, even if her father is an SOB...

Hillary Rodham is a real person for me now.

If only she had not been dragged down by a charismatic, intelligent, but essentially narcissistic, debilitating man, to whom she was addicted.

Where would we all be now?

Maybe in the next life, if we survive Trump trauma...

5 people found this helpful

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Rita Dragonette

A Pale Companion to American Wife

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2020

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In her 2008 novel American Wife, Sittenfeld accomplished something I still can't figure out--a 600+ page turner about a "quiet" first-lady based on Laura Bush who kept a low profile and and her thoughts and heart hidden. It was wonderful and I highly recommend it. It's obvious the author was reaching for something similar, with perhaps more zest, with Rodham, a fictional "what if" in the spirit of Phillip Roth. What if Hillary hadn't married Bill.?Readers appear to be split about the two halves of the book (before and after Bill). I enjoyed the first in the spirit of American Wife. Yes, we know a lot of it, but the human backstory is still fascinating and when Hillary leaves Bill you feel all the pain and regret of her own "what if's." The second half is a scenario you have to buy into, and now that the author has reinvented the world, the reader will be tempted to as well. Would I have her carry this torch? for example. No spoilers, but it might be a can't win situation.--satisfying to some readers and infuriating to others. Just as I wonder how she so brilliantly pulled off the American Wife story, I wonder why Rodham isn't as compelling. Perhaps because we know the subject so well and have all formed our own opinions about what Hillary should or should not have done in real life that it's a bit of a challenge to stick with someone else's vision. All that said, it's worth reading, especially if it sends you back to American Wife.

One person found this helpful

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What if Hillary Rodham never married Bill Clinton?

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2021

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Alternate histories explore the what-ifs of the past. What if the Nazis had defeated Britain before Pearl Harbor triggered the US entry into World War II? What if the British had captured and imprisoned George Washington? Or, as in the case of Curtis Sittenfeld’s intriguing alternate political history, what if Hillary Rodham had never married Bill Clinton? Would either one of them have reached the White House? And how might today’s world be different as a result of the changing trajectories followed by these two exceptional individuals?

A familiar path, then a surprise

Hillary Rodham‘s path through life is well known. Born in 1947. A middle-class upbringing in a Chicago suburb. B.A. from Wellesley College, where her speech at commencement in 1969 garnered national attention. J.D. from Yale University. There, she met and later married Bill Clinton. Staff lawyer on the Nixon impeachment. Law professor at the University of Arkansas. Then a series of longer experiences:

First Lady of Arkansas (nine years)
First Lady of the United States (eight years)
United States Senator from New York (eight years)
Barack Obama’s Secretary of State (four years)

All of which was in preparation for her unsuccessful campaign for the presidency in 2016. But how different might Rodham’s life have looked if she had opted not to marry Bill Clinton in 1975 but to strike out on her own then? That’s the challenge Sittenfeld takes up in her captivating alternate political history, Rodham.

An independent path in politics

In Sittenfeld’s telling, Hillary Rodham has moved to Arkansas and followed Bill Clinton through the early stages of his political career. When he proposes marriage, she agrees at first. But then increasing reports of his infidelity raise doubts, and she breaks off the relationship. On her own, she builds a successful career as a political activist and professor of law at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago, near her parents’ home.

When she runs for the United States Senate in 1992 to replace Alan Dixon, her path to the White House opens up. And from that point on, her story and Bill Clinton’s sharply diverge. Clinton loses his bid for the governor’s mansion and sets out for Silicon Valley. There, he amasses a fortune as a tech investor. Meanwhile, Rodham serves for three terms in the Senate. And in 2004 she launches her first, unsuccessful run for the Presidency. Many more surprises follow. And not just in Bill and Hillary’s lives, but in the nation’s.

An alternate political history of the United States

Consider, for example, Sittenfeld’s amusing alternate chronology of “American Presidents and Vice Presidents elected 1988-2012.”

1988: George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle
1992: George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle
1996: Jerry Brown and Bob Kerrey
2000: John McCain and Sam Brownback
2004: John McCain and Sam Brownback
2008: Barack Obama and Joe Biden
2012: Barack Obama and Joe Biden

The what-ifs abound in this thought-provoking novel:

What if Bill Clinton had not had Hillary by his side in his campaign for Governor of Arkansas? Would he have won? (Or, alternatively, would he have won even more readily?)
What if Clinton had never attained the governorship of Arkansas? Would, or could, he have continued to build a political career? Would his childhood ambition to serve as President draw him into the race in any case?
But, mostly, what if Hillary Rodham had been on her own, free to run for office out of Bill Clinton’s shadow? Might she have reached the pinnacle of political leadership?

Some recognizable characters out of history

Sittenfeld mixes recognizable, true-life characters such as Bill Clinton with others she disguises with a light touch. Rodham’s good friend Gwen is, of course, the redoubtable Marian Wright Edelman. The National Children’s Initiative is the Children’s Defense Fund. And Gwen’s husband, Richard, is Peter Edelman. But in other cases there is no similarity between the characters in the novel and the people in Rodham’s life. That’s the case with the law firm in Oakland where she interned for a summer in 1971. Robert Treuhaft, the firm’s senior partner, appears nowhere in the novel, with or without disguise. Nor does his partner Malcolm Burnstein, one of my closest friends, who vividly remembers Hillary Rodham as a young Yale Law graduate. But, after all, what is an alternate political history if not a mixture of fiction and fact?

About the author

Curtis Sittenfeld (born 1975) has written a collection of short stories and six novels to date, including Prep (set in a Massachusetts prep school) and American Wife (a fictional account of the life of First Lady Laura Bush). She holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

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J. Medina

Enjoyed this one, the 'what if' was a little too real!

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2020

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This was not what I expected, and I enjoyed it very much. It was hard to separate reality from fiction, and several times I got my hopes up of how things could have been. All that to say this was very well written, and in my personal opinion the audiobook was great and might be the way to go here if you can do that medium. It was dry at times, but probably to be expected as most of Hillary’s adult life was politics which is why I’m recommending the audio.

I am always going to be about supporting women, and I think overall that is why I loved this book so much. I am aware that this will definitely not be for everyone, but that is ok. I enjoyed most the what if, not just from specifically Bill and Hillary’s perspective, but from the broader female perspective. I get so tired of the ‘we have to stand up for ourselves but not too much’ routine for females when men get away with so much. And I think Sittenfeld captured the essence of this very well in here.

I cannot say much more or else I might give too much away, and that is not what I want to do. It is quite steamy at times, which I was ok with or could skip over but could be an issue for some. Overall, this was entertaining, and I really enjoyed the ‘what if’ of it all.

One person found this helpful

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Bryan G

A first-hand perspective of the barriers that ambitious women face

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2020

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A well-written journey through what might have been had Hillary Rodham never married Bill Clinton. Deliberately blurring history and fancy, Sittenfeld lays bare the sexism and conspiracies that in our word were Hillary’s final undoing. If you want to imagine what might go on inside Hillary’s head, and to get a first-hand perspective of the barriers that ambitious women face, you’ll enjoy this book.

4 people found this helpful

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Jim28

Cringe-y

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2021

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The first hundred pages make you cringe as it personalizes HER and HIM down to their intimate acts. In the end, author manages to eke out a readable alternate universe of Rodham. Not a new ground for Curtis as she was able to do it in her previous (also enjoyable) FIRST WIFE novel. But the style and this genre might be come too thin for her talent and she should give this a rest. (KAMALA is next a few years from now). There are passages where the main character is portrayed as a lovesick individual for HIM and how many times must HE be described as handsome?

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Amazon Customer

Eh, whatever...that’s ok I guess

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2020

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Just finished this e-book on the eve of the 2020 general election. Unfortunately, Trump is still getting away with murder with no apparent consequences to him. I have tried to understand people that vote(d) for Trump. The best that I can do. I do hold voters accountable for allowing themselves to be manipulated by a man who is very obvious ( to me).
Trump makes nor has he made any attempts to hide his agenda. He is an effective salesman of his own image. Millions have bought “Trumpism” and will continue to follow Trump over the “cliff into oblivion”. May God have mercy on us. I pray for peace and I hope that love seizes the day. Thank you Lord for one more day!

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