LITERARY FICTION
RODHAM by Curtis Sittenfeld (Doubleday £16.99, 432pp)
HAVING previously lightly fictionalised the life of Laura Bush, Sittenfeld here imagines an alternative trajectory for Hillary Clinton. Narrated by the politician herself as she looks back, it opens with her graduation in 1969 when she has an intimation of her ‘singular future’.
What she doesn’t foresee is how that future will be impacted by a charismatic, leonine Arkansan named Bill, who, shortly after their first meeting, is playing the saxophone for her naked. But Bill’s philandering proves terminal for their relationship, and Hillary’s decision to go it alone sees her ultimately facing her former lover for the position of President.
Sittenfeld is usually a sparkling storyteller and, here, she’s a convincing ventriloquist, but the functional first third of Rodham often plods as it dutifully lays the groundwork. Fortunately, as Hillary finds her groove, so the momentum and entertainment builds — as does your admiration for how ingeniously yet plausibly Sittenfeld has rewritten the script.
SEA WIFE by Amity Gaige (Fleet £16.99, 288pp)
SOME couples choose therapy, but Juliet and Michael are different. When their marriage flounders they leave Connecticut with their kids to sail the coast of central and south America.
That this does not end well we know, because Juliet, who’s also writing a PhD on the confessional poet Anne Sexton, returns home sans husband.
A lot’s packed into this smart, pacy and affecting book, which vividly captures the peaks and troughs of both married life and life on the waves (and is alert to the overlapping metaphors). Nor is the mystery of Michael’s fate its only motor; we also learn about the devastating roots of Juliet’s depression, and there’s even a (not entirely convincing) thrillerish whiff of murder. Throughout, Gaige intersperses Juliet’s narrative with extracts from Michael’s ship’s log, forming a dialogue the intimacy of which, we poignantly realise, was impossible faceto-face. And while Sea Wife plumbs some murky psychological depths, it still pulls off an uplifting conclusion.
SMALL PLEASURES by Clare Chambers (W&N £14.99, 352pp)
THE 1957 Lewisham rail disaster, in which 90 people died, casts a long shadow over this tale of passion versus duty, which begins five months before. Solid, sensible 39-year-old Jean is a journalist on the North Kent Echo, where she’s seen as ‘one of the chaps’. Off-duty, she’s at her elderly mother’s beck and call, meaning her greatest freedom is usually unfastening her girdle at night.
But things get more exciting when a local woman, Gretchen, claims that her daughter is the product of a virgin birth. Sent by the paper to investigate, Jean soon finds herself drawn into the family’s life, and her repressed maternal feelings surface. More inconveniently, so does a powerful attraction to Gretchen’s kindly husband.
Chambers’ use of the terrible train crash as a framing device unfortunately feels rather contrived, but this is nonetheless a gentle, heart-aching mystery that’s infused with empathy and a keen understanding of stifling 1950s mores.