BuzzSugar

Buzz Interview: Curtis Sittenfeld, Author of American Wife

BuzzSugar — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:30:44 -0700

This week, author Curtis Sittenfeld's new book American Wife hits book stores near you. The book is inspired by the life of Laura Bush, and a few weeks ago, when I was about halfway through American Wife, I chatted with Sittenfeld about the controversial aspects of the book, how this epic American tale is a departure from her previous two books, and what's going on with the movie version of Prep!

Buzz: This character, Alice Blackwell, is intriguing and sexy, and generally those terms are considered mutually exclusive from the first lady. How did you work around people's ideas of what it means to be the first lady?
Curtis Sittenfeld: I think that all people are complicated and all people have inner lives. I think that a lot of times our view of first ladies is that they’re very stiff or proper or formal but I think they’re people like anyone else. When they’re not in public they probably can relax a lot more.

I know that these characters are based on the lives of George and Laura Bush, and when I read some of the sex scenes, I wondered if you had a hard time going there?
Laura Bush was a starting point for this novel, but there’s so much that we don’t know about her even though she’s a very public figure. And so what I did was invent a character who’s loosely inspired by her but isn’t her. I do not see Alice Blackwell as just, you know, Laura Bush is her name change. I see Alice Blackwell as a distinct person. I know that some readers might feel differently but I don't feel like I wrote sex scenes between George and Laura Bush [laughs].

To learn more about her new book and why she might still write about weird, neurotic girls, read more!

My experience reading the book so far has been to forget it’s Laura, and Alice is her own person to me except when I bump into events that I recognize from Laura’s life. It’s a unique reading experience to say the least. Is that the experience you think people will have? Hope they’ll have?
Well, the way that I conceived of the book, there are four major events in in Laura Bush’s life that I included - you know, one in each of the four sections of the book that are real - and then pretty much everything else is made up. So I would say 85 percent of the book is made up. The characters, the situations, the conversations - and I trust the sophistication and intelligence of my readers and I like when I read a book that assumes my intelligence. So I know that it's a kind of weird hybrid book, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

When it comes to women married to men who do things that we don’t agree with, there’s this tendency to implicate them by association. Did you find yourself more sympathetic to a woman like that? This book has made me rethink my ideas of those women’s responsibilities, etc.
Yeah, that is definitely a question that’s really interesting to me, which is: How much is one spouse responsible for another spouse? Or how much does one spouse represent another spouse? And I think it’s an incredibly complicated question and the answer varies a lot from marriage to marriage. But I actually just got married, like, three months ago. So I do think the subject of marriage is probably interesting to me during the time I was writing this. You know, I’m about to turn 33 and you know there are marriages . . . like of course the ideal is to marry for a long time but then sometimes you look at, you know, marriages that have lasted, you know, 30 or 40 years and you think, "Well it lasted long, but I don’t know if I’d want to be in it." But I think it’s a worthy goal for people to try to stay together, but I also think that you have to make compromises.

Yeah, it's such an intriguing question and so far I find myself feeling very sympathetic toward this character who I know will become the first lady and judged by people for her husband. I keep thinking, "Aw, but she's young and falling in love."
Right, well, it’s so hard to guess how anyone’s life will turn out I mean even with, you know people I knew in high school or people I knew in graduate school. Their lives . . . some have taken much different turns than I would have guessed, but you know, that’s what makes life interesting.

Unlike Lee in Prep, or Hannah in The Man of My Dreams, Alice is a grown woman and more mature than either of those young women. Are your characters going to grow up as you continue to grow?
Well, by the end of the book Alice is 61, so she obviously gets to be much older than I am in real life. I think that I don’t feel like I’ll never write about teenage girls or young women again. I mean, I still think that there’s so much material there, so I don’t think my characters will only get older as I get older, although to some extent that will probably happen. I do feel like one of my core readers is probably like the 22- or 23-year-old young woman, and I do hope she does not feel abandoned by this book. You know, like, "What happened?!"

Right! You hit on my initial reaction when the book was in my hands. Which was, "Oh my. This is a big epic book . . . It’s so different from the others."
This is a story and a personality that really captured my imagination, but I’m not determined to only write epics from here on out, you know? I still have room in my heart for neurotic, you know, weirdo girls [laughs].

Oh good - I feel like I can speak for many when I say that’s somewhat of a relief!
Yeah - I promise, I promise!

Finally, are there plans for any of your books to become movies? Do you want that?
Prep was optioned by Paramount, and the option has been renewed, and actually a screenplay exists, which was written by Noah Baumbach - he did Squid and the Whale. I think, you know, it seems like with movies all the stars have to align - every thing has to correspond perfectly for a movie to be made. But I think things are a little bit murky, but I would be delighted if it got made. He is attached as a writer/director. I would be delighted if he were the one who made it. I don’t know, Man of My Dreams was not optioned and this one I think they just started sort of sending it out in Hollywood. I don’t know. It’s not an area where I feel like I have any control, which is kind of liberating.

Source and Source

The Sittenfeld Book Debate: Should Laura Bush Be Off-Limits?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:32:32 -0700

My friend Citizen sparked a lively conversation yesterday around an upcoming book by Prep author Curtis Sittenfeld titled American Wife. The novel follows a character named Alice Blackwell who is based on Laura Bush, and many of the first lady's real-life experiences are included.

I was intrigued by the strong reactions that spread across the Web yesterday, especially after Radar posted several sex scenes from the book that earned the unpublished novel descriptors like "steamy" and "tawdry."

Some folks feel strongly that this was disrespectful to Laura Bush, and that Sittenfeld should have left her alone. The assumption there is that the main character will be trashed in the book, but actually, there is reason to suspect the opposite. In 2004, Sittenfeld wrote an article ("Why I Love Laura Bush") explaining how much she admires Laura, calling her "such an easy heroine to root for - smart and nice but just flawed enough (she still sneaks cigarettes!) to remain likable." There doesn't appear to be malice in Sittenfeld's intentions.

Many fictional characters are based on real people - some famous, some not - but do you think Laura Bush should be off-limits? Or is any public figure fair game for novelists?

Source and Source

What's Buzzworthy? Smart Chick Lit

BuzzSugar — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 06:59:20 -0700

After I reviewed The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, user jadenirvana put in a request for more books that fall into the elusive "thinking girl's chick lit" category. I thought that sounded like a great Buzzworthy Challenge - after all, that's one of my favorite book genres, too.

I usually bristle at the phrase "chick lit" (much like "chick flick") because I think it's come to refer to lighthearted beach reads that lack any real depth or substance. But Girls' Guide writer Melissa Bank and others prove that books about and for women can still be intelligent, well-written literature. I'd love to know which books on your shelf fit into this category. To get you started, I've bookmarked Girls' Guide along with Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, a smart novel about a small-town girl at a prestigious East Coast boarding school.

Using BuzzSugar's cool Buzzworthy bookmarking tool, just find the books you love on the Web, bookmark them as Buzzworthy, and tag or title your choices with the phrase smart chick lit. Then, I'll post some readers' favorites next week.

To find out how to create a Buzzworthy bookmark, read more
Don't worry: TeamSugar makes it easy to bookmark and capture anything on the Web that you consider "Buzzworthy." If you already have a "That's Fab" button on your browser's tool bar, you can use that to bookmark your Buzzworthy items. If you don't have the TeamSugar bookmarking button on your toolbar, you can learn how to get it by watching this video.

Source

Link Time! Simon Baker Scores Surfer Role

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:30:40 -0800

Simon Baker attached to surfing drama Breath - Coming Soon
Eddie Murphy to star in R-rated animal comedy The Misadventures of Fluffy - Movieline
Anvil! The Story of Anvil and Capitalism: A Love Story both left off of Oscar documentary shortlist - Cinematical
Get a look at next week's annual Slapsgiving on How I Met Your Mother - PopWatch
All Songs Considered: The 50 most important recordings of the decade - NPR
Susan Boyle breaks Amazon's record for global CD pre-orders - Lifeline Live
Could Lost's Nestor Carbonell be Khan in the Star Trek sequel? - Moviefone
True Blood's Stephen Moyer signs on for thriller The Caller - MTV Movies Blog
Remember Chandler's awkward relationship with Thanksgiving? Share your own stories with Très - TrèsSugar
Interpol is prepping an album for next year - Pitchfork

BuzzSugar's Must Haves For November

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0800

When it comes to exciting entertainment options, November is ready to razzle dazzle. I'm talking A-list talent (Clooney!), TV sweeps with awesome guest appearances, and a little film called New Moon - perhaps you've heard of it? Oh, and just in case you weren't busy enough already, there are new DVD and music releases, too. It's a lot to keep track of, so here's my cheat sheet to get you prepped!

View Slideshow ›

Is the Jim and Pam Wedding Episode Overhyped?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:30:00 -0700

The big moment we've all been waiting for is just about here: Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly will finally be married in an hour-long special episode of The Office tonight!

NBC (and the entertainment world in general) has gone all-out for the event, including an EW cover, video teasers, talk show appearances, even their own wedding site.

I can't wait to finally see Pam and Jim tie the knot, but you'd almost think we were being prepped for the series finale given all the promotion. What do you think - are you more excited than ever or is there too much buildup to Jim and Pam's big day?

Photo courtesy of NBC