“Just to be clear,” I said, “this isn’t about race.”
“Well, sure.” There was an edge to Gwen’s voice I hadn’t heard even when she’d tried to convince me not to move to Arkansas. “This isn’t about race for you.” [loc 3510]
A fictional alternate biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton that imagines "What if Hillary didn't marry Bill?": I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable about American politics to appreciate the machinations and manouevring here, but I found this a compelling read. There's a strong sense throughout of Hillary as a decent person, a determined and energetic woman who wants to make a positive difference and thinks she can do it better than the men she knows.
The first third of the novel deals with Hillary's student days and her relationship with Bill. Apparently many American readers are squicked by the sex scenes, but I didn't find them offensive and they didn't interrupt the narrative: they are well-characterised and ground Hillary's breakup with Bill due to his sexual infidelity. There's a strong sense that the two of them love one another, despite everything, and that's echoed later in the narrative.
The middle third of the book deals with Hillary's life as a senator, as a single woman in politics, as someone who has to be extremely careful of everything she says or does -- because, as a woman, she will be held to higher standards than any man. The crises and scandals that occur during these years are, I think, different to actual events, though there is common ground. (I'd love to have the incidents in this novel tabulated with comparable incidents in the real world.)
The final third, rather amusingly, has Hillary and Bill (the latter now a Silicon Valley technocrat after a sex scandal derailed his 1992 campaign) contesting the presidential election of 2016. Bill's supporters chant 'shut her up! shut her up!' (milder than lock her up, but still wanting to silence a woman and remove her from discourse) while Hillary finds herself advised to seek the support of someone she can't take seriously. Hence this tweet:
At 1:01 P.M. on August 10, 2015: Sleazy Bill Clinton should drop out of the race, unless you want Blowjobs in the oval office!
At 11:43 P.M. on September 4, 2015: Hardball Hillary is a great leader that wants to put our economy first. Do not vote for Cheatin’ Bill! [loc 5828]
Bill, with his billions and his sleaze, becomes more Trumpish than Trump himself: Hillary, in contrast, 'redeems' herself (should she even need to?) by acknowledging her mistakes, owning her privilege and her poor judgement, and apologising to those she's wronged -- those who believe they've been wronged. Unlike her male counterparts, who seem to be motivated by power, greed and sex, she has a true vocation for politics, a desire to make the world better for those without white cis male privilege.
A surprisingly enjoyable read: it was my first encounter with Sittenfeld's work, and though I must have missed quite a lot of nuance due to my ignorance of US politics, I was engrossed by Sittenfeld's portrayal of a woman dealing with sexism, hypocrisy, infidelity and the conflicting demands of career and personal life.
Fulfils the 'About a woman in politics' prompt of the Reading Women Challenge 2021.
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