American Wife

This book is divided into four sections and is loosely based on the life of Laura Bush.  I never initially thought I this book would hold my interest because I have less than zero interest in George Bush and frankly I never paid any attention to his wife at any time during his presidency.  However, the first two sections of the book are well written and just interesting enough to pull you in.  By section three, however, you see the vapidness begin to infuse into Alice Blackwell's life.

In the first two sections, Alice leads an intellectually interesting life tempered with a bit of sadness, but overall she is a good person with many kind qualities.  Those qualities are then dampened by the privilege and wealth her husband brings.  The latter two sections of the book are essentially filled with Alice living in two worlds.  She physically is present in the world of the wealthy, yet internally struggles with the fact that she's a compassionate person and the people in her new world of wealth are not. The more the book goes on, the more she vacillates between her inherent compassion and her loathing for just about everything her husband does.  Honestly, I sped read the last section because I was just bored with her going back and forth.  We get it, you're a really nice person who willingly married a guy who has no clue about the real world, and you lost your independence in the process.  It happens. We all make bad choices sometimes.  Her perseveration about her situation just had me rolling my eyes. It started off as a good read that, in the end, didn't deliver.