I've read lots of great books this year - I've already handed out lots of 4 star and even 4.5 star reviews - but I save my 5 star ratings for the top of the top, so I only just now read my second 5 star book of the year - Rodham, by Curtis Sittenfeld. If you haven't already heard of it, the main character of this novel is Hilary Rodham - yes, that Hilary Rodham - but though she meets Bill Clinton and dates him in law school and beyond, she ultimately doesn't marry him. So while part 1 is a fictional rendering of that young time of her life and their early relationship, parts 2 and 3 are something even more interesting - an imagined rendering of what would have happened to Hilary - and the world - if they had not gotten married. Some things turn out the same, some turn out totally and utterly different, but in a way the most interesting are the little parallels of things people say or do that echo things that happened in our version of history but sometimes play out in different ways.
You definitely don't have to be a Hilary super-fan to read this one, though I think it would be hard to read it and not come out with more appreciation at least for this fictional rendering of her. In Sittenfeld's hands, she is certainly not portrayed as unflawed, but she comes across as so deeply human and emotionally relatable. It's part of what makes this book so interesting - not just the politics angle and the "what if" angle, but the interpersonal relationships and the self-reflection. And the portrayal of sexism - both overt and unconscious - is searing.
