18 July 2020

Rodham - Book Review

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
Publication date: May 19, 2020
Pages: 417 pages
Genre: Political fiction, speculative fiction
Rating: 4/5 stars ✰✰✰✰
Strengths: Imagination, political knowledge
Weaknesses: Jumpy timeline narration


I really enjoyed this memoir of sorts - it tells all about Hillary Rodham's life, from her perspective. Except it's just a speculation of what her life may have been if she never married Bill Clinton.

The whole book felt plausible to me. Granted, I've never really followed politics, but the depictions of Trump especially were as annoying as I experience when hearing 'real' Trump tweets and quotes. I'm not sure if that's a compliment. The portion of the book that had his character in it was really a trial for me to get through. Ugh.

I did sincerely like Hillary's character. While I can't speak to how true it is or is not, I found her character in the book to be quite likable. Her struggles as a female politician in a position of being scrutinized felt sincere and believable. I also appreciated her life choices as seeming realistic and justified.

Overall, I liked this book a lot and will seek out books by the same author. While it's been compared to fan fiction, the writing was decidedly more professional to me. I'd give this book 4/5 stars and recommend it to political buffs who can appreciate fan fic, and those who enjoy contemporary fiction.

3 comments:

Trin Carl said...

Curtis Sittenfeild books are great. I hope you get to read more of them.

Shea Lennon said...

This book sounds so intriguing to me, and I wonder how she can even write it--did Hillary give her permission? So interesting! I like Hillary Clinton but I don't know her story well, so I imagine this would be fascinating to read to see her life as it's imagined here.

thecuecard said...

I too read this one .... she really lambasts Bill Clinton in the book! I didn't like how Trump actually announces Hillary's run for the presidency in the book .... Ugh. I didn't care for his part in the story. I mostly liked the early part of the book best with her & Bill together .... then later it gets a bit crazy. Still it's a bit of a sympathetic portrait of Hillary. here are the rest of my thoughts of it at : https://www.thecuecard.com/books/june-bloom/