Rodham

Curtis Sittenfeld’s Rodham is a counterfactual novel built on a single change. What if Hillary Rodham had said no when Bill Clinton proposed in the 1970s and gone on to build her career independently? Sittenfeld follows that thread through the decades, into a political life that takes a different shape than the one history actually delivered.

The early chapters, including Hillary and Bill’s relationship at Yale Law and her decision to leave it, are the strongest in the book. Sittenfeld writes intimacy and ambition with equal attention.

The later chapters get more controversial. The book takes specific positions about other real political figures that some readers found bracing and others found cheap.

For readers who liked American Wife, Sittenfeld’s earlier counterfactual about a different First Lady, this is a similar exercise pushed further. The willingness to imagine real people in altered lives is the whole point.