Curtis Sittenfeld: Rodham, 9780593230527, Penguin Random House USA, large format paperback, International edition

Hats off to Curtis Sittenfeld for writing such a fascinating tale of  what-could-have-been had Hilary Clinton not married charismatic Bill Clinton.  Feeling somewhat ambivalent about this book to begin with, I ended up feeling very enthusiastic about this clever novel.  It could have easily turned into a disaster by a less skillful author particularly since everyone knows the real life story of the actual Hilary Clinton and how her political career has turned out.  But Curtis Sittenfeld does a masterful job in imagining a life where Hilary walks out on Bill Clinton after dumping a promising professional start for him ending up living with Bill in Arkansas until  finding proof of his repeated infidelities before their  scheduled marriage. 

Taking some historical facts into account, Sittenfeld composes a fascinating fictional tale of the next forty years in Hilary Clinton’s political and private life which made me laugh out loud a few times and kept me hooked and surprised to the very end.  She explores the loneliness and steely determination needed by a woman when throwing her hat into the ring for high powered positions or how to this day women are judged so much more harshly than man when entering politics. 

Great narration and plot, loved the fictional development she invents for such prominent characters as Bill Clinton or Donald Trump. I will not reveal more since it would thoroughly spoil the fun reading this fictional narration of a sometimes very different Hilary Clinton but then again characteristic of the real life Hilary appear.