What if? Powerful words turned into fictionalized accounts of history can be so much fun. Thomas Mallon, author of Watergate, his reimagining of the famous debacle that brought down Nixon’s presidency, offers a list of alternate history in fiction in his essay for The New Yorker – Never Happened.
My favorite includes Monica Ali’s An Untold Story, imagining Princess Diana faked her own death, started life over as Lydia Snaresbrook, and created a new life in a Midwestern American town, appropriately named Kensington. Stephen King’s 11/22/63 also captured my attention when he used time travel to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Now Curtis Sittenfeld, author of American Wife which channelled First Lady Laura Bush, creates a life for Hilary Rodham as if she had never married Bill Clinton.
Publication date is set for 2019 – we will have to wait for this thriller.
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