Sittenfeld manages to create a three-dimensional character who the reader grows to appreciate and understand through the course of the novel. Hilary Rodham Clinton doesn’t owe us this much of her life just because she is a public figure, but the book, built around a great deal of nonfiction sources, allows us to begin to understand some of the situations and decisions she is faced with, and is very on the nose about the different expectations we have of women and men in public office.