What if Hillary hadn’t married Bill?
Hillary is smart and diligent at school, but a bit plain and boring. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader - and catches the eye of a driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to marry him, Hillary gives him a firm No.
In the latest Curtis Sittenfeld novel ‘Rodham’, Sittenfeld explores the painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world ruled by men. In the novel, Sittenfeld imagines a Hillary who has managed to avoid most of the controversy that clings to her real-life counterpart. It helps that the fictional Hillary breaks up with Bill after law school instead of marrying him. But by rearranging real moments alongside invented ones, Sittenfeld keeps the reader hooked.
In “Rodham,” Sittenfeld tries imagine what Hillary’s life might have been like if she had decided not to marry Bill or live so much of her life in his shadow. What if she had remained Hillary Diane Rodham, a smart, single woman determined to be President? What if she hadn’t wasted her early professional years accommodating her husband’s political ambitions? What if she had gone into politics on her own much earlier? What if there had been no Monica Lewinsky, no Rose Law Firm billing records, and, even better, no years as First Lady?
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