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In her 2003 memoir, Living History, Hillary Rodham Clinton recalls the moment that Bill Clinton proposed marriage to her: “I knew that when I decided to marry, I wanted it to be for life. … I thought of him as a force of nature and wondered whether I’d be up to the task of living through his seasons.” In her new novel, Rodham, author Curtis Sittenfeld imagines a world in which Hillary had never accepted Bill’s third marriage proposal, and instead forged a political career on her own. The book begins with Hillary offering a graduation address at Wellesley College, before attending Yale Law, where she would eventually meet the very charming Bill Clinton.
The beginning of the book is a charming romance, imagining the beginning of Hillary and Bill’s courtship, their devotion to each other and dual ambition. The politics of this sweet romance are complicated, as the reader can easily forget that this romantic figure they’re reading about is a sexual predator, which is definitely uncomfortable. But the Bill Clinton character is well flushed out, he is the charming but slimy man that we now know him as. Sittenfeld imagines that Hillary breaks it off with Bill after they move to Arkansas following law school, due to Bill’s consistent infidelity and a credible accusation of sexual assault against him. The book then follows Hillary’s career, leading up to the 2016 election, where instead of running against Donald Trump (who appears as a funny bit-character in this novel), she runs against her former boyfriend. Sittenfeld explores a human side of Hillary, inhabiting her perspective and giving her a girlish charm and more understandable motivations.
More interesting than the contemplation of how Bill affected Hillary’s career is Sittenfeld’s portrayal of how Hillary affected Bill’s career. It is clear that Hillary’s ambition and intelligence would make her a formidable political candidate no matter what personal choices she had made, but it feels important that Sittenfeld imagines that Bill would be a failure without the support of his loyal and intelligent wife. Rodham digs at the ways in which men and women are differently held in the public eye, and begs the question whether Bill Clinton could have weathered the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal without Hillary’s unequivocal support. In imagining Bill as a pseudo-Trump figure in the 2016 election, as a billionaire candidate with hateful supporters, Sittenfeld draws an important connection between the sexual assault accusations against both men.
But at the end of the day—and this is not a quality judgement—Rodham is a sort of fanfiction. It offers readers an alternate conclusion to a story, one that is far more pleasing and palatable than the original. While it is a fascinating premise to reimagine a world in which Hillary was elected president instead of Donald Trump, the book feels less compelling because of its efforts to make Hillary a more likable figure, and thus two-dimensional. At many points in the narrative, Sittenfeld reduces Hillary to an intelligent and ambitious woman with sound judgement. But intelligent women are always complex and difficult to capture simply, and thus the book loses sight of some of Hillary’s fascinating contradictions in favor of more lighthearted fan service.
This novel is very clearly written for fans of Hillary, and it would be difficult to imagine anyone that is not a supporter of hers picking it up. Sittenfeld is aware of this fact, and thus allows herself to indulge in some warmhearted evocations of Hillary’s truly inspiring career and lifelong dedication to public service. While some readers may have felt uncomfortable with all of the writing about Hillary’s sex life, it does feel gratifying that Sittenfeld has rejected the “cold” and “frigid” labels that the media has heaped upon Hillary throughout her career. Rodham is a delight, but one that does not always come to terms with the gravitas of its subject matter.
Further Reading: For an account of Hillary’s career up to 2003 in her own words: Living History. For her appraisal of the real events of the 2016 election: What Happened.