“Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President”
First Chapter Summary
In the first chapter of the non-fiction novel, “Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell
Their President” by Eli Saslow with each chapter representing one story from each letter,
introduces the characters and setting. It begins at 8:00 p.m. on January 8, 2010 on a
snowy Friday night when a messenger hands Obama a purple folder containing ten
random letters with a few hundred pages of policy memos and scheduling notes what
he calls his “homework packet.” He informs us about how the White House Mail Staff
choses ten over 20, 000 letters to send to the President as a request since his second
day as president coming in six days a week. Eli includes the simple details of how
Obama receives letters that no longer say thank you notes or good news, but more
letters that are summed up to call him an idiot. The first letter is from a twenty-seven
year old married woman, Jennifer Cline, with two children who is in debt with hundreds
of thousands dollars. She was struggling with financial issues and a small feud with her
father when discussing about her only way out was to file for bankruptcy. She received a
letter back three weeks after from the president that encouraged her to take it as a sign
to file for bankruptcy to start anew with her husband. Saslow tunes back to the President
and discusses about the secret service’s protection that had changed from twenty
people in 1908 to thousands of secret service with five hundred FBI experts trailing his
every move for a sign of danger. He refers back to the assassinations that had occurred
and the imperfections of the past presidents to show they are not perfect and the
constant dangers. In the end, Jennifer and her family are able to be granted for
bankruptcy that erases all their debts, but will be on top of his credit report for ten years.
The story ends with the both of them celebrating and creating a fresh new start.