Dowd defends ‘Laura Bush’ novel

Curtis Sittenfeld, the American novelist who, as reported on The First Post today by Charles Laurence, has taken Laura Bush as the inspiration for a controversial new novel, American Wife, is generally being accused of smearing the First Lady's reputation. The American website, MSNBC.com, has called the sex scenes "too graphic to reprint".

But one prominent American journalist has come swiftly to Sittenfeld's defence - the auburn-haired columnist Maureen Dowd (pictured). Writing in the New York Times, Dowd says it is unfair to brand the novel as salacious. "It's the sort of novel Laura Bush might curl up with in the White House solarium if it were not about Laura Bush."

Dowd argues that only a novelist could get close to the truth about America's current First Lady. "When you look into her eyes during an interview, you feel as if she is there somewhere, deep inside herself, miles and miles down. But though she is lovely and gracious, the main vibe she gives off is an emphatic: 'I am not going to show you anything'.

"Once in a while, you'll read about something she's said, like that legendary line she uttered to her future in-laws - 'I read, I smoke, and I admire' - that makes you realise how intriguing it would be to see the real Laura... But there's only one vessel that can ferry you past Laura's moat, and that's fiction."

Dowd concludes: "Art has always been made out of the stories of kings and queens. Fictionalising historical figures is fine. Fantasies about public figures are inevitable... And the story of the quiet, pretty librarian who could suffer the fate of being an old maid if not rescued by the dashing hero is a favorite American narrative - from The Music Man to It's a Wonderful Life."