American Wife is the third novel by Curtis Sittenfeld, whose debut novel was the very excellent (and bestselling) Prep, a tale of East Coast boarding school angst. American Wife also takes place amongst the East Coast buttoned-down set, except this time it's a novel based very obviously on the life of Laura Bush. In particular, it examines exactly what a woman like Laura (Alice, in the novel) could possibly see in a man like George (Charlie Blackwell, in this case). The answer is both more complicated and convincing than we were expecting. Sure, at times the novel feels like a puppet show--an excuse for Sittenfeld, a self-confessed bleeding heart liberal, to foist her own opinions on these characters, even when it feels clunky or pat. But then again, we guess that's a novelist's prerogative.

The book is engrossing in a gossipy sense--who doesn't want to know what's behind Mrs. Bush's serene appearance?--and to two fellow bleeding heart liberals, it's also a little terrifying--because Sittenfeld's novel does a pretty good job of answering the question, What does she see in him? Turns out it has more to do with his penis than his policies. (So who knows what excuse the people who voted for him had...)

In an excerpt after the jump, check out what happens the first time Alice and Charlie have sex--on their first date, let it be noted. Turns out the leader of the free world has a cute butt...

Soon all my clothes were off, too, we were rolling on the bed, I'd wrapped my legs around him, and I took his erection in my hand and guided him into me, and it felt so elemental, so necessary, for us to be joined like this and then it was like awakening abruptly, and I gripped his arms and said, "Wait, my diaphragm is in the--"

"No, I have protection. We're fine." It was in his wallet, which was inside his pants on the floor, and as I watched him retrieve the condom, I was already too dazed to feel self-conscious about staring. His butt was small in the way that I always forgot a lot of men's were; how could he possibly be an unscrupulous politician with such a cute little butt? Back in bed, he knelt on the mattress--I was lying flat, and he was above me--and perhaps it sounds crude to say that this was the moment I knew I could love him, when I saw his penis. With men in my past, the penis had seemed to me an odd creature, both comic and forlorn. But I felt a great devotion to Charlie when I first got a look at his, the ruddy-hued upward-pointing shaft, its swollen veins and cap-like tip. All of it was so completely of him, and I felt how there was no part of his body I wouldn't want to touch, no way I wouldn't allow him to touch me.

When he's rolled the condom on, he straddled my waist and lowered his body down and thrust into me again, and he murmured, "I can't believe anything that feels this good is legal."

Let us count the ways in which this scene makes us feel dirty (and not necessarily in a good way)! But all that said, we think the sentiment is kind of sweet. Because what woman in love for the first time hasn't felt warm and affectionate toward the penis attached to the object of her affection?

You can buy American Wife on Amazon.com. For more information about the author, visit CurtisSittenfeld.com.