The heroine of Curtis Sittenfeld's controversial new novel bears a striking resemblance to a certain political spouse

This article is from the September issue of Radar Magazine. For a risk-free issue, click here.

Curtis Sittenfeld's first novel, Prep, about a young woman attending boarding school, was greeted with wide acclaim and stellar sales, but it didn't merit a link on the Drudge Report or a tirade from Bill O'Reilly. Her latest just might. American Wife is loosely based on the life of our current first lady, and it's hot stuff. (Click here for a few steamy examples.)

In completely plausible and hugely compelling fashion, Sittenfeld (a resolute liberal) explores the inner life of a woman named Alice Blackwell, who, like Laura Bush, is a thoughtful school librarian from a small town. We should mention that Blackwell marries a charming, handsome, baseball-loving, hard-drinking, entitled man who becomes a hugely divisive president. Rush Limbaugh, are you listening?

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RADAR: So how much of this book is based on fact?
Curtis Sittenfeld:
 I don't think it's in dispute that Laura Bush was involved in a fatal car accident or that she was 
a Democrat until she 
was 31. She and George Bush really did meet 
at a backyard barbecue 
in the summer of 1977, got engaged within 
six weeks, and then got married six weeks after that. So I was guided by a few real incidents. I made up most of the book. I mean, I've never even been in the same room with Laura Bush. Now 
I probably never will be!

No kidding. You concocted some pretty provocative stuff! The lesbian grandma, the rough, creepy teenage sex, the abortion...

Well, I think all of our lives could be described provocatively if you mentioned only the most shocking incidents. 
The idea of a Republican president and first lady having a gay relative is hardly surprising. Seriously! Lots of people have gay relatives. That's ordinary life. I'm not trying to be gossipy 
or pseudo-titillating. I'm trying to examine motives and personalities and decisions, and to imagine what certain situations would be like.

Bill O'Reilly's going to spaz out on you.
I can't worry if Bill O'Reilly will get mad at me! He doesn't loom large for me, and I don't think I loom large for him. When you're writing fiction you just sort of go forward and write what seems organic and then see if it works or not. I had to write based on the assumption that people understand what fiction is. I don't think it's my place to teach people the difference between a novel and nonfiction.

Though if they can't make that distinction, they might like the book even more.
It crossed my mind that this book has enough of a hook that it would probably still be published even if I'd executed it poorly. I actually didn't show it to my publisher until the entire thing was finished, because I wanted to reserve the right to yank it at any time.