Rodham

You already know the protagonist of Sittenfeld's new novel Hillary Rodham. The book imagines what her life might have been like if she refused to marry Bill Clinton. (She did turn him down twice in real life, before eventually agreeing.) Sittenfeld, the author of Prep, Eligible and other novels, is no stranger to imagining the inner lives of people in the public eye; the protagonist of her novel American Wife is an avatar of another former first lady, Laura Bush.