AMERICAN WIFE * GO SET A WATCHMAN

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld - When I saw Laura Bush on Oprah, I couldn't help but like her, even though I wasn't a fan of her husband. More than halfway through this book, I realized that this was a fictionalized account of how an interesting intelligent woman could end up married to someone like George Bush. I still don't understand how he became president and then how he hoodwinked enough people with fear mongering and lies so that America would go to war. She isn't the first woman who followed and stayed with her man in the wake of his disastrous decisions, and unfortunately she won't be the last. The book is good, if long and much in Alice's head. That's part of the problem - when you're married to someone who's all out there with his personality, and you're the quiet one, you have this whole other life that's happening in your head, and in Alice's case (mine too) between the covers of the book you're reading at that moment.

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee - The now famous best selling follow up to To Kill A Mockingbird is thought-provoking to say the least. It's about Scout, and in her thoughts but not in the first person. She returns to Maycomb, Alabama for her annual visit in the mid 1950s. She's 26 years old now, still fiercely conscientious and righteous, and she's been living in New York City for five years. Halfway through we finally find out what this book is going to be about, and basically, Scout, now known as Jean Louise, gets some new news about her family and their southern views at the dawn of the Civil Rights movement. I'm left with more questions than answers: Why wasn't this book published when it was written? Was Harper Lee a recluse because she was embarrassed at the hypocrisy of life as a white person in a southern town? Did she feel powerless? Could she have been more vocal for change? Would that have made a difference? Are white men still the ultimate arbiters of power? Will women ever be arbiters of power in a way that doesn't have to reflect the male way? This is certainly no To Kill A Mockingbird, but worth the read as insight into Harper Lee as a writer and chronicler of a certain southern history at a specific time and place.