CURTIS: Oh, it’s not torrid. It’s like loving, married sex. But it is interesting me that, to me, it’s so much more respectful to try to sincerely imagine what a person’s life is like than to do this sort of crude satire or mockery. There’s this idea that George Bush is a monkey and, you know, Laura Bush is a zombie. And to me, that’s totally uninteresting and it’s disrespectful. I’m a democrat, but still, I think people deserve to be acknowledged as complicated and three-dimensional. And so, I don’t know, it’s a strange thing to hear. I see what you’re saying, but at the same time, to me writing this book was a sympathetic act in trying to imagine: How does someone really feel? Not what does she look like to me, but what does the world look like to her?

LESLEY: Would you call this an historical novel? I mean, what genre is it?

CURTIS: Ahh, I think probably just a novel. I mean, obviously there are some novels where they say, “This is from the point of view of a historical figure,” you know, whether it’s Henry James or Marie Antoinette, and they use a person’s actual name. And then there are other things that are sort of made up. But, I mean, as much as I like to see myself as a groundbreaking writer, I actually do think I’m following in the footsteps of a lot of other people who have written about the Bush’s; a lot of other people have written novels that have relationships to reality. Joyce Carol Oates has written novels that kind of take real situations and sort of embellish them.

LESLEY: Have you read Irving Stone? He used to do a lot of that.

CURTIS: I haven’t read Irving Stone. But also, I mean, Primary Colors. I think that’s a book that has a really different tone. I enjoyed that book a lot. But the Clintons were in office when that book was published.

LESLEY: True enough.

CURTIS: I’m unoriginal. I’m unoriginal.

LESLEY: Well, you did mention that you are sympathetic to Laura Bush, and the character is someone that you do like as you read it, and you’re very kind. Her name is Alice Lindgren. And her husband, the George Bush character, is cocky Charlie. He’s happy-go-lucky, drinks too much. I mean, so many parallels with George Bush. The Barbara Bush character is really wonderful. And her nickname in the book is “Madge,” which is short for Her Majesty. It is wonderful, it’s wonderful. But let me go back to the George Bush character, Charlie. You are also quite kind to Charlie. You said you were a democrat. Did you end up, as you delved more and more into these characters, did you end up liking the president more?

CURTIS: Well, I have a sort of divided view of George Bush, which is that I think he’s a very bad president. And I strongly wish he had never been elected. But I think that, you know, if you met him at a party he would seem pretty appealing, especially if he weren’t president. You know, if you were seated next to him at a dinner party, I think that he would seem funny and engaging and charismatic. I think that he’s made so many terrible choices as president, but again, I don’t think that that means that he’s, you know, completely evil.