Curtis Sittenfeld at Lincoln Triangle B&N

Curtis Sittenfeld is pretty smart. After two novels which critics and readers alike proclaimed to be autobiographical, she came up with a way to make sure no one thinks her third one is about her: she made it about Laura Bush. Throw in some steamy President-on-First-Lady action, and no one's going to be talking about Curtis the Protagonist.

On tour for American Wife, Sittenfeld gave a reading at the Lincoln Triangle Barnes & Noble the other night. Sheryl and I (also known as the "We Could Have Written That" book club) made the trip up to see her, fueled by our mutual, post-adolescent love of Prep. Sittenfeld was remarkably...normal. A little nasal due to a cold, she was quirky and sincere at the same time. Very funny in her one-liners about her life as a writer, and very candid in her admiration for Mrs. Bush. (Sittenfeld is not a Republican, and not so thrilled with the Bush presidency.)

The crowd questions were pretty evenly divided between "How could you make a sympathetic character out of someone married to a monster?" and "Why didn't you write about yourself this time?" Ahh, reading crowds. At least no one ventured the usual question about influences. Maybe the best part of the discussion was the question about whether Sittenfeld knew if Laura Bush would read the book. Of course, Sittenfeld denied knowing anything about it, but come on. You're Laura Bush. You like books, and someone has just come out with a barely fictional version of your life. AND there's controversial sexual content, which is graphic and just biographical enough to gross out reviewers. You're pre-ordering that sucker on Amazon.

Anyway, it was an intriguing perspective on the First Spouse. I like Sittenfeld even more than I did before, and am looking forward to reading the book.