Hillary Rodham Clinton is one of the most recognizable names not only in the United States but also in the entire world. An accomplished politician, lawyer, and writer, people mostly remember her for being a former First Lady of the United States ( 1993 – 2001) when Bill Clinton became the President before moving on to become a Senator from New York (2001 – 2009) then later as the 67th United States Secretary of State (2009 – 2013).
Despite such an illustrious career, author Curtis Sittenfeld chose a different route when she wrote a book about Hillary Clinton. In her upcoming novel titled “Rodham,” Sittenfeld “explores how her [Hillary] life might have turned out if she had stayed an independent woman” as announced by the book's publisher Doubleday, according to The Guardian.
Sittenfeld revealed the unusual way of how she approached the novel. “There were countless pieces analyzing Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the 2016 election, and I found myself thinking not about how she looks to all of us, but how all of us look to her,” the author said.
“Instead of examining her from the outside and determining what she ‘means’, I approached this novel with the question, ‘What is it like to be her?’,” she added.
Doubleday’s Marianne Velmans teased a little on what the novel is about. The first part follows actual events in Hillary’s life.
“At the beginning, Rodham follows what really happened – after Wellesley College she’s a very smart young lady and gets into Yale Law School, where she meets Bill Clinton and they fall in love,” Velmans said. “They have a great relationship, and when he moves back to Arkansas to run for [election] she follows to help with his campaign. He asks her to marry him. She says no. He asks her again. She says no. So far, that’s the truth – what’s in her memoir.”
But the novel starts to diverge from facts after Bill Clinton asked Hillary to marry him the third time. In actual life, Hillary finally agreed and became Mrs. Clinton. In the novel, however, she still said no and Bill never bothered her again.
“But the third time, she says yes, and in this novel, she says no, and they go their separate ways,” Velmans explained. “It’s about the terrible compromises and criticisms female politicians have to face that men never face, and how much harder it is for a woman to make her way in politics.”
Curtis Sittenfeld’s “Rodham” will be published on June 30.