Author Curtis Sittenfeld has written a couple of fictional novels based on the lives of former First Ladies such as “American Wife,” a fictional story loosely based on First Lady Laura Bush published in 2008, and “Rodham,” an upcoming novel loosely based on Hillary Clinton.
But there’s one First Lady that the author won’t be writing a book on. In fact, Sittenfeld already declined requests to write a fictional book about the current FLOTUS, Melania Trump a couple of times, The Guardian reported.
“I have declined to write fiction about Melania Trump double digits of times – almost on a weekly basis,” Sittenfeld told The Guardian in a 2018 interview.
One reason is that Sittenfeld thinks that writing about the Trump administration might be too draining for her. The logical thing to do is to keep thinking about Trump to a minimum, which explains why a Melania Trump-based fictional novel won’t be happening.
“First, I cannot imagine at this point voluntarily writing about the Trump administration because it has claimed so much of my mental energy, so much of my life, that to allow it to take up my writing time too feels like I would be giving up something very precious,” the author explained. “I don’t want to think about Trump more than I already am.”
Sittenfeld also prefers to write about her characters in a balanced way, something that she admitted she might not be able to do when it comes to Melania Trump. “Another reason is that I don’t like purely being satirical or savaging people. I really like writing about characters in a balanced, complicated way and I don’t think I could do that with Melania Trump,” the author explained.
“I don’t admire her,” Sittenfeld added. “I don’t see her as one-dimensional, but neither do I see her as someone whose consciousness I yearn to explore.”
Sittenfeld’s latest book “Rodram,” which will be published on June 30 by Doubleday, is loosely based on Hillary Clinton’s life. The main difference is that in the novel, Hillary would decline Bill Clinton’s third proposal at marriage and would opt to end their relationship.