Compulsively readable, as one expects from Sittenfeld, but I find it almost painfully embarrassing to read fiction about real people, so clearly that was a draw-back here.

What a great read! Fun and unexpected. Curtis Sittenfeld was brave to take on Clinton and she did a super job.

I know this is probably a great book, but I struggled with it and ultimately did not finish it. It just wasn't my genre, I suppose. It was well-written!

Alternative history if Hillary hadn't married Bill and what her life would have been like. Not that it is hard to have exposure to characters in real life, but truly does a great job. Hillary and Bill end up running against each other for president, Trump endorses her, she wins. Much more complicated and nuanced than that, but I found this a gripping and compelling read.

This novel reimagines Hillary’s life had she not married Bill . They still date, he is charming and unfaithful....It still follows their law school days and their political careers. I was absolutely fascinated by the conversations and events in this book and found myself wondering what was based on fact and what was fiction . I know nothing about the Clintons and never read any of their biographies . Calling this just fan fiction would do it a great disservice , I found this extremely entertaining and a fun meditation of sorts about what it’s like to be a woman in politics. Brilliantly written!

"Rodham" just wasn't for me. It's a fantastic idea, but reading steamy scenes between two very real people was a bit weird.

Thank you for the ARC, NetGalley!

Review of Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld, Published in The Coachella Review (2020)
By Amy Reardon
Today in America 2020, it is four months until the next presidential election and nothing is certain except our ever-growing regret that we did not elect the most qualified person for the job when we had the chance. But why not? And would it have made a difference if Hillary Clinton were not attached to Bill?
Enter Rodham, Curtis Sittenfeld’s sixth and boldest novel yet, a fictional story of Hillary’s life trajectory had she followed her own bright star instead of her husband’s. Delicious in its fantastical rewriting of history, the book’s most irresistible pull lies in the promise of the parallel life. For don’t we all secretly fear a better life might have been just around the corner, if only we had been brave enough? But the novel’s true brilliance lies deeper, in Sittenfeld’s examination of one key question: why didn’t we elect our first woman president in 2016? Was it her … or was it us?
Sittenfeld’s Hillary is talented and driven. She sees the humanity in everyone and wants to help improve people’s lives. In the novel as in real life, Hillary meets Bill in law school at Yale. They are each other’s perfect intellectual match. The attraction is magnetic, the sex is constant. Awkward, hard-working Hillary falls in love, and with this development, Sittenfeld shows us a Hillary who is human, someone who is perhaps not so different from us after all. (Though in classic Sittenfeld style, the author never allows “novel” Hillary the desires of her heart—“He was enormous and tender and he subsumed me”—without also asking us to question whether those desires serve her. “What could be better than being alone in a room with Bill Clinton?”)
What happens next is also universal, but for its common despair: Bill cheats. “His apparent talent for deceit—it was so disturbing, so insulting. How could I stay with a man like that? How had I been such a poor judge of character? And yet I believed what he’d said about his spirit and soul, I believed he wanted us to be together forever.” It is here, after the cheating one assumes, that the novel splits generally from reality and moves into make-believe. It is here Sittenfeld’s genius takes over as she leads us to inhabit a new possibility: what would happen if a woman chose not to make herself smaller to fit inside her relationship?
For anyone who tracks American politics, what follows in the novel is a glorious descent into an alternate reality. Out of nowhere, Sittenfeld opens a 24-year gap in history with a simple list, “American Presidents and Vice Presidents Elected 1988-2012,” reassigning the cast. All the loudest men on stage in American politics today remain on stage in Sittenfeld’s novel world, but rearranged. And while Sittenfeld deftly slides these men into their new slots in history, they all sound exactly like themselves. Early on, Bill tells Hillary, “I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this during the women’s movement, but you have great tits.” Later, when Bill calls a wine “velvety and structured,” he asks, “does saying that make me sound sophisticated or like an asshole?” Hillary responds, “Why choose?”
To share more would be to spoil the plot twists that make Rodham a true joy to read, which brings us to the great seriousness of this work. Rodham is the first novel I have read in which the author slices open and holds up for examination the very specific grief that I and every woman I know carries since the 2016 presidential election, when instead of electing our first woman president, we installed a liar, a cheat, a racist, and a sexual predator. A grief that was compounded two years later when Christine Blasey Ford stood before Congress and testified to her sexual assault by a Supreme Court nominee, after which he was appointed anyway. I don’t know a woman who wasn’t changed permanently by watching this public demonstration of men wielding power, or who is not seriously grappling with her own complicity in this system.
In Rodham, young Hillary comes to understand being a girl puts her generally up for question. “Maureen’s father smiled unpleasantly from across the table. He said, ‘You’re awfully opinionated for a girl.’” The scene takes place at a birthday party, when Hillary is ten. “It was not the first time someone had said such a thing … But Mr. Gurski’s remark was the sentiment’s clearest and most succinct expression in my life thus far and gave me, henceforth, a kind of shorthand understanding of the irritation and resentment I provoked in others.”
How the tears fell down my face, that November morning after Election Day 2016, when real-life Hillary said in her real-life concession speech, “To all the little girls watching … never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world.” In Rodham, Sittenfeld takes the time not only to catalog what we lost that day, but also to issue a warning of the dangers of dehumanizing a person, of making her into a symbol. As Sittenfeld’s Hillary explains during a debate in the novel, “It’s likely that there was never a time that you were aware that I existed without also being aware that I’m supposedly controversial, untrustworthy, or unlikable. And it’s very normal that if we’re told many times over many years that a person is untrustworthy or unlikable, we’ll believe it.”
Sittenfeld’s aim in Rodham, I suspect, is not to accurately reflect on the internal life of the specific real-life person named Hillary Clinton, but rather to inhabit this woman as a proxy, just like America did when it cast her as a polarizing force not for who she was but for what she represented and triggered in the minds of many Americans. Also, I’d like to think Rodham is the author’s wish for every woman who seeks to find her voice and inhabit life as her most authentic self. Finally, Rodham is a well-timed reflection on who we are as a country and the type of leadership we deserve. Call it a sexy beach read, call it a balm for our collective sorrow, call it whatever you want, just read it and discuss it with every woman you know before Election Day.
Amy Reardon’s work has appeared or is upcoming in Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, The Adroit Journal, Glamour, and The Coachella Review. Follow her @ReardonAmy.

A really interesting think piece about where Hilary Rodham might have ended up if she never become Hilary Clinton. I loved the musings on what it's like to be a woman with power- everything we have to give up to get there, and the barriers that are in place before we even set foot in the door. Honestly reading this made me a bit sad to think about all of what might have been. On the other hand, I could have definitely done without the sex scenes, but the fact that it felt so realistic is a testament to Sittenfeld's writing.

RODHAM is a clever story about what-ifs. By taking such a famous and iconic couple in our history and undoing their worlds is such a brilliant premise. Sittenfeld masterfully weaves a tale that is both engaging, intelligent, and pure enjoyment.

I am fascinated by strong women and I thought this was a great concept hypothesizing the trajectory of Hillary's life & career had she not married Clinton.

Maybe I am still old fashioned, but something bothered me about how much of a sex addict Sittenfeld made Clinton out to be although she may not be wrong. I did appreciate how she actually had Clinton discourage Hillary from marrying him even though they were very much in love.

I did like that she built her career in this novel on her own and claimed the ultimate office in the end, but it felt as if she was perceived harshly and I felt bad for her. That could be exactly what the author wanted to convey I realize now as I type this, but it was a just a little off putting.

All & all, it was a good interpretation of what "could have been" and I wish I could explain more why something held me back from giving it 4 stars at least, but I would still recommend it.

I didn’t care for this. There are some interesting moments scattered throughout, but 1) I felt it was weird to read about still living people and 2) the still living people at times felt like caricatures. There are incidents that aren’t explored in depth, and it also bothered me because some things were completely altered historically yet other moments continued to happen, just in a different context (such as Hillary’s baking cookies statement). I was also really bothered by the treatment of Carol Moseley Braun. I looked her up & she’s pretty interesting, and did some monumental things, for example - getting the rule that women couldn’t wear pants on the floor changed. But all of that and her political career is dismissed.

I find it frustrating when people act as though nothing bad would be happening if Hillary had been elected. Some of the stuff happening now was happening prior to 2016, and would still be happening. Ultimately, this book just wasn’t for me. But I’m also not really sure who it IS for.

Terrific novel. Represents a new way of creating what could be called "political literary fiction"
The way in which the author draws out the "what ifs" is entertaining and really quite remarkable.
It's also a creative feat to take someone we all think we know everything about -- and then create
another dimension of "knowledge" about that person -- even if its just fictional.
This is definatey worth a read.

An interesting imagining of Hillary Clinton's life and what could have been. Reading this pre-2020-election was somewhat cathartic, in that the author siphoned off some of my post-2016-anger onto the page. Writing a woman with ambition without importing society's real-world judgement is very difficult, and Curtis Sittenfeld does a capable job of showing that. Can smart women only succeed without also having true connections in her life? That seems to be more of the author's opinion, given the author's previous novels, than an examination of the true public Hillary.

3.5/5 stars because I read this in mid-2020, but did not remember that I had until visiting NetGalley after an absence and being prompted to review.

Having read Sittenfeld's work a couple of times, I have had a chance to read her from a couple of different angles. When I first heard about this book I thought that it would be intriguing to hear of a real person's tale.

Hillary Rodham is a student at Yale Law School and working through internships and classes when she meets the charismatic southerner Bill Clinton. They fall for each other and everything seems to be leading towards marriage, until something rocks their relationship. In the reality we live in, things would get back on track. But what about if things never did?

I must admit, I forgot about the underlining premise of this book. So when I realized where it was going, it kind of felt like watching a car crash. I kind of wanted to sit back with my imaginary bag of popcorn, watching thing unfold. I felt Hillary's voice at the forefront of the whole story. She was very much the vehicle of the plot. I wasn't really sure the point of view would work, but Hillary seemed to be very observant of her and the people in it; so the first person narrative worked well.

A plot based observational moments: I was deeply saddened that Hillary never did marry. I get that being career driven can make it 'hard' to find someone. It honestly seemed incredibly sexist against women. Which is not at all Hillary. However, the narrative seemed to imply that she couldn't manage to see marrying anyone after Bill. I felt like this stole away from Hillary's strength. The idea that Bill became a Silicon Valley mogul seemed an odd choice to me. It just didn't really align with everything he had done up to that point. It also didn't seem to not have much to do with people--something Bill had always seemed to work for. I found it really hard to accept this modern equivalent Bill because of that.

Beyond these things, I did truly love the ending. I found some of the little details leading to it odd and amusing jointly. The inclusion of former President Trump and his role especially intrigued. I don't know how I feel about the conclusion. It feels like Sittenfeld is saying solely because was not Bill's wife, Hillary became president. I don't think it's that simple. Things never are. I know her life took a lot of twists and turns, it might not of because of her martial status, but still.

I guess ultimately while I found this book interesting, it was difficult to believe. Thank you!

Sittenfield writes with impeccable command over her subject matter. You know you are in good hands, both in terms of experience and richly imagined characters, when you start her book. In a similar vein to An American Wife, Sittenfield forces us to imagine what it would be like if the ideas and people that have held woman back in reality, did not do so instead.

I loved it! The depth of emotions that I experienced as I followed the story over the decades of Hillary's life had a huge impact on me. I found "Rodham" to be both a real page-turner, yet also a true work of literature, in that it addressed many complex issues that lie at the heart of the human condition. I loved it! I highly recommend it. And I’ve given copies to a few of my friends.

Sittenfeld's writing is never not good. I enjoyed this reimagination and interpretation of Hillary's life sans Bill. I was expecting something a little more like American Wife, but this was different in a nice and surprising way. It was difficult for me to divorce reality from the narrative, as I would often think about Hillary in real life, but that was also kind of the fun of this book.. Would recommend.

I loved this book in general – although I really love the first 2/3 of the book more than the end. It was very poetic justice that Hillary won the presidency and used Donald Trump to accomplish her goal. But I was also so tired of hearing about Donald Trump by the time I read this book, that I wished he wasn't in it at all.

I loved this book. Hilary was written with a great sense of humor and I was cracking up at how Donald Trump was portrayed. I wish this had all played out this way in real life. It is interesting that the author wrote about a real person with real life events included but changed a key portion in her life to come up with this story. It makes me wonder about using real people as fictional characters!

This title was misleading, admittedly. While biographical and "ficmoir," the novel draws upon too much of Hillary's real life to make the distinctions between fiction and fantasy. There are too many real moments of Hillary's life including a cameo from Donald Trump, when I as the reader would have preferred a more imaginative conjuring of a life truly outside of a man's "shadows," as I've read that this title attempts to do. However, Sittenfeld is a wondrous writer and the sentences and display of authenticity are worthy of reading.