Sarah Vowell
1 Vowell's Views are Consonantt With My Own
Blessed be Sarah, whose voice, though a Yowl; speaks truth with humor to the myths of Hannitized American history. This book is not recommended for yahoos or country club Republicans. This is a great laughing listen and a relief to those of us who live in North Carolina, where 'extreme rendition' is thought to be an up tempo version of Amazing Grace.
2 Political Commentary Turned me Off
After seeing Sarah Vowell on a recent David Letterman show I was amused by the author's take on political assassinations throughout American history. Quirky historical facts from American history have always interested me, and I was excited to learn more about this book. I thought the audio version would be a great purchase for my iPod, so I listened to a clip of Assassination Vacation on iTunes and was prepared to make the purchase. But when I listened to another audio clip on Audible.com's website, I was disappointed to hear that it was just another political book with more Bush bashing. The book was soon deleted from my shopping cart on iTunes. I will be glad when our country gets over the spiteful political mood we are currently in and we get back to where we were before the recent Presidential elections. I think Sarah Vowell's book would have been be a funny read [listen], but the political commentary ruined it for me.
3 Makes History Fascinating
This book is on par with Vowell's first two collections, 'Partly Cloudy Patriot' and 'Take the Cannoli'. This book is different, though, in that it is more cohesive, following one specific theme. Vowell does an excellent job of providing a patriotic view of Amercian History that is both humorous and enlightening. She should write history texts for the schools - then children would love history class for sure.
4 Sarah's Got A Political Axe to Grind - Don't Bother
Frankly I am disappointed.
When I first read about Sarah Vowell's book on visiting the assassination and burial sites of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy, I was quite eager to get a copy. I have many books on the murder of Abraham Lincoln and it is an episode of American History that often brings tears to my eyes. I too have read much on McKinley and his assassination, and have personnally visited the tombs of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy in my lifetime.
However when I read Ms. Vowell's comparison of Theodore Roosevelt to Paul Wolfowitz, and in a manner disparaging to both gentleman, I quickly put the book down and walked away. It is one thing to write a emotive, pathos-filled work on the assassination of four of our most beloved Presidents (whether or not you liked them), it is quite another to put your own political perspective in such a work. In her anger at the U.S. War in Iraq - and taking a swipe at the decision to go to war with Spain in 1898, Ms. Vowell has chosen the deplorable latter over what could have been a major historical accomplishment.
The reasons why we went to war with Spain were honorable ones, whether or not the U.S.S. Maine was sunk by the Spaniards. Did Ms. Vowell ever hear of the "Virginius"? or of Weyler and the Concentration Camps??? She even takes a swipe at the heroism of the Rough Riders!!!
Buy the Bishop and Manchester books on the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations, or Margaret Leach's insightful bio of McKinley.
By far the best book on the assassination Lincoln besides the works written by Jim Bishop and Carl Sandburg is the pictorial history -"Twenty Days" by the Kunhardts. Put your shekels down on it - not on some Lefty's complaints-filled tourguide...
5 An insightful, hilarious tour of American history
I've been a huge Sarah Vowell fan for a while now, and adored her three previous books, none of which prepared me for the sheer brilliance of "Asassination Vacation," whose main subject is the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. I have been throughly fascinated by the subject ever since taking part in a community theatre production of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins" last fall. And lo and behold! On the very first page, she describes her primary influence in writing the book: a community theatre production of "Assassins" she attended (not the same, of course)! The book is a great mix of history lesson, satire, political essay, and travelogue, and the title, "Assassination Vacation" is very apt, as it details her (admittedly strange) journey across America to visit all of the historical sites associated with the first three presidential assassinations (along with some other minor stops, such as to the site of Reagan's shooting by Hinckley). She goes to Ford's Theatre, she travels the journey that Booth took after shooting Lincoln, she even goes to the island north of Cuba where Dr. Mudd was incarcerated with a few other of the conspirators, she goes to Booth's grave, she goes to the museum where pieces of Lincoln's skull are kept on display...She pretty much goes everywhere even remotely linked, and gives an account that shows her taking her own wisdom from her "Revenge of the Nerds" essay in her last book, "The Partly-Cloudy Patriot" to heart, being a self-deprecating nerd. She admits how strange her fascination might be, and continually pokes fun at herself, which yields a great deal of comedy, but at the same time always remains incredibly reverent about her topics, particularly about Lincoln, whom she holds in exceptionally high regard, while at the same time wondering whether some part of her shouldn't thank Booth because Lincoln might not have been held in such high esteem today had he not been killed. She describes leaving the Lincoln Memorial, hating Booth, and then realizing he should, in some way, be thanked for his part in creating Lincoln the Legend. I love it for her observations and revelations such as that, and in particular how she compares the assassins to the presidents they kill, revealing that, in strange ways, they have more in common (ambition, drive, enormous egotism) than one might think. Her brain also works like a six-degrees-of-presidential-assassinations game (as she says herself at one point), and she can basically connect any subject to one. In one of the funniest parts of the book, she goes on what seems to be a brief tangent about the FOX television show, "The O.C.," (as she did with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in her last book) and then manages to return it, brilliantly, to her discussion on the strange sex/Utopian cult that Charles Guiteau, Garfield's assassin, was a part of for five years. I highly recommend this book to anyone who might be interested in history but is always scared away by the dour, textbook tone of many history books. This book is also written in such a light, humorous, conversational tone that it might even draw the interest of people not usually interested in history. I have never laughed so hard reading a history book. Fans of The Daily Show's "America: The Book," in particular, will find a lot to love here.
6 Snore
I'm actually giving this book stars because I'm a big Sarah Vowell fan, but the book was so not her!
If I wanted a history lesson, I would have paid more attention in high school. The only things that really made me want to read the book was the fact that I like Sarah's work and I thought that the idea of the book was great.
Honestly, I barely made it through the first chapter (if you can call it that because one chapter was about 200 pages long) much less the rest of the book. In the middle of reading a page one day I also had the television on and sure enough there was Sarah on the Daily Show. John Stewart was going on and on about how funny the book was, and I couldn't have disagreed more. There were, admittedly, parts of the book that had their funny bits and pieces, but the usual wit was lacking horribly.
It's very depressing to write such a bad review about her books considering how much I loved the others, but I do say read it and judge it for yourself.
7 Drollness and Political Passion Imbue Vowell's History Tour
Having just read her very brief epilogue in David Sedaris' short story anthology, "Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules", I was intrigued enough by Sarah Vowell's Sedaris-like drollness to pick up this book. With a welcome acerbic tone and a surprising dollop of sentiment, she tackles a defiantly quirky and dark topic by taking a personal journey and exploring historical tourism focused on the first three U.S. Presidents assassinated. Sometimes the mix is uneasy, but for the most part, Vowell seems to be honing in on her own unique voice. I think what saves her from the extremes of being precious or patronizing is her almost academic curiosity of the seemingly mundane. As a result, the author provides some intriguing insights even if they can be sometimes contrived to fit her droll tone. The focal Presidents in her book are Abraham Lincoln, which takes up half the book, and two more obscure choices, James Garfield and William McKinley, and she also examines in detail the assassins and other people associated with the murders.
Even though McKinley could have been an interesting subject for the imperialism he espoused during his administration (for example, the turn-of-the-20th-century occupations of Cuba and the Philippines in Iraq-like fashion), perhaps his political resemblance to the current President diminished Vowell's interest in exploring him much further than his assassin, anarchist Leon Czolgosz. Consequently he remains a cipher even after reading this book, as McKinley quickly became overshadowed by his successor, Theodore Roosevelt. Vowell seems far more engaged in musing about Garfield whom she obviously views as a life cut tragically short. In 1881, Garfield was in office only a few months when he was shot at a train station by Charles Guiteau, an unemployed psychotic who had been pestering the new President to get an ambassadorial appointment. Garfield apparently had the education and sharp political instincts to become a great leader, and Vowell ponders the what-ifs of his life with considerable forlornness. She calls him "Mr. Loner McBookworm" and portrays him as a kindred spirit, almost as a proto-slacker who cared principally about leisure.
But unsurprisingly, Lincoln gets most of the author's attention. Everyone knows about his final moments at Ford's Theater from their grammar school classes, but Vowell finds unusual nuances to his murder and the probable conspiracy around it. For example, she talks at length about the word "sockdologizing", which was used in a punch line in the play Lincoln was watching. The reason for its relevance is that actor John Wilkes Booth knew the line would get a big laugh and thus muffle the gunshot. She goes to Mary Surratt's boardinghouse where the plot was hatched, now a Chinese restaurant called "Wok and Roll"; and retraces Booth's escape route and takes a boat ride to the Dry Tortugas where she visits the prison that held Dr. Samuel Mudd, the white supremacist physician who set the leg Booth broke after leaping to the stage. She talks about the oddly ironic usage of Booth's onstage Latin declarative in Maryland's state motto and even ventures to Alaska to see a totem pole erected by a Tlingit chief, who was once insulted by Secretary of State William Seward, a figure relevant for the fact that he was roughed up by one of Booth's co-conspirators on the infamous night. Vowell would have made a great history teacher at a progressive school because beyond the hit-and-miss one-liners lies a passionate political viewpoint.
8 Quirky quickly becomes quite readable (listenable)
As a longtime fan of "This American Life" on NPR, I've heard Vowell before (her stories about family get-togethers being exceptionally funny).
When I found out that John Stewart was the voice of Grover Cleveland I knew I had to get this book.
Yes, I'm listening to the spoken word version. I must say I thought Sarah's voice would get annoying after a while. What's funny for 5 minutes on the radio could be bad after 7 hours. But that's not the case. It's actually fitting that she have a slightly "regular" sounding voice- rather than the overly annunciated one usually heard on tape.
This audiobook is perfect. Adapted for the listener, I imagine it would be equally funny in print-- *PLUS* I'm actually learning something.
I find that Sarah's oddball experiences tend to match my own- whether it's the inappropriate telling of personal information to strangers to the inexplicable desire to research things to death- though I must say I tend to avoid asking others along on my expeditions whereas she can't figure out why people aren't enjoying their excursions to Nowheresville.
I highly recommend this very entertaining educational examination of presidential assassinations (if there could be such a thing).
-Anthony
9 Who would have thought?
This book was a real treat. Laughing and learning in the same experience? The bit compairing the Oneida Community (a book there in itself) and the TV show "The O.C." is simply hysterical. Thank you Sarah. You have won over a new fan.
10 A most morbid curiosity
Early in her alarmingly funny new book, "Assassination Vacation", Sarah Vowell makes reference to the recently revived Stephen Sondheim musical, "Assassins". Having seen the musical last summer and now, having read her book, "Assassination Vacation" is clearly the better of the two.
Sarah Vowell is a combination of Christopher Columbus and Sherlock Holmes. With the deftness of discovery and of unearthing the most mundane things presidential, she sets out on a journey of hilarious proportion....and along the way enchants the reader with her wit and narrative style. This funky, spunky, spelunker of assassination treasure, Ms. Vowell spares no detail. From discovering the skull of Lincoln assassination collaborator, Lewis Powell, to her seasick ride to Fort Jefferson to view co-conspirator Dr. Samuel Mudd's jail cell, to upstate New York, where she finds about the (non)-sexual practices of Garfield assassin Charles Guiteau, the author is a whirlwind of morbid intrigue. She leaves no stone (or plaque) unturned and the result is a cheerful and very informative romp through assassination history.
The wonderful thing about Sarah Vowell's book is that she loves what she is doing, regardless of what other people might think of her eerie attraction to death by pistol. Yet she contributes to the overall landscape in ways that are educational. I've always wondered what ever happened to the train station where Garfield was shot and that after Leon Czolgosz fired fatal bullets into William McKinley through a bandaged hand that the bandage caught on fire! You don't get these gems in your average textbook.
Thank you, Sarah Vowell, for "Assassination Vacation". Is there a natural segue to this book? I don't know, but l'd like to see where the author goes next!
11 Better on audio
Sarah Vowell has such a distinctive way of speaking that it's better to hear her read her own work than to read it on the page. Having the other people do the other voices is sometimes a little jarring, but probably works better than if they hadn't done it that way.
This book is laugh-out-loud funny and a must-read for history geeks, one of those books that makes you late for appointments while you sit listening in the parking lot. She is a little harsh about Baltimore, but her trip to Greenmount Cemetary brings back fond memories of Halloween tours there with Goucher College professor Kent Lancaster. If you've ever annoyed friends and family by making pilgrimages to odd places just because they're connected to some random historical thing, you will totally enjoy this.
12 Yay..............
When people recommended Sarah Vowell to me I thought that her style would be sarcastic and cynical...not that I am either of these things, but I tend to be linked up with humor of that vain.I was hence surprised to really be exposed so this book, which is my first foray in Sarah Vowell. This book is so endearing, so self deprecating and funny about her own obsession with history and the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley that I thouroughly was absorbed for the entire read. Plus, I learned so much...I probably learned more history than I have in twenty years in reading this book.
Yes, she has a political slant, but most historians do, right. History exists to give the present some relevance and meaning. So,there is a little current president bashing, but there could be a lot more...and in relating the world of McKinley to the world of now, it gives you that idea that the one thing you learn from history is that people don't learn from history. We keep cycling back.
On top of this, Vowell is funny, hip, pop cultural and nerdy at the same time...the kind of person who might stand in line for a museum opening the way some stand in line for Star Wars(31 days everybody).
I wholeheartedly recommend this book. It is hip, but not painfully so, heartfelt, well researched and a thorughly joyful read....
13 Vowell at her best: making history fun for everyone
This is a fantastic read for fans of Vowell, the shining star of the stellar "This American Life" bunch, and fans of American History. If you happen to be both, you are in for a real treat. Vowell decides to put her fascination with the macabre and American History to good use by writing a travelogue--sort of--about the first three presidential assassinations. In the course of the book, she visits numerous sites that have to do with Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley as well as their assassins--Booth, Guiteau, and Czolgosz. She also focuses on "Jinxy McDeath" or Robert Todd Lincoln, who was present at all three assassinations.
Throughout, Vowell writes with her trademark witty humor. The most impressive thing about this book is that Vowell somehow manages to be both reverent and irreverent at the same time. Her passion for history is refreshing as is her treatment of it. For me, the measure of a good work of non-fiction is if it inspires one to read more about the subject; I have already begun piling up books on Lincoln and Garfield (which is an accomplishment in its own right; I never imagined anything would inspire me to learn more about Garfield. Kudos to you, Ms. Vowell!) and their assasinations. I expected to laigh but did not expect to learn so much once I closed the back cover.
This is by far the best work of her career and leads one to hope for more of the same. I hope that her stint in "The Incredibles" will lead to increased readership. My one complaint is that she repeatedly refers to the books she has read on the topic and one wishes she would have included a further reading section. A minor quibble about a work that I will suggest to everyone I know.
14 Sharp as concertina wire
Somewhere along the way, Vowell got a false rap---gentle funny, a real Will Rogers type, the girl next door. Not really. While her latest is like a long talk with a long lost friend--- random, meandering, informative(she quotes the journal of the guy who did the autopsy on President Lincoln to great effect and tells us that they passed around the spine of President Garfield at the trial of his assassin)---it is also much more: a sharp rebuke to racisim, an unbridled attack on those who wage "optional wars"(what a great phrase), and a lament of life( telling us that although historical flukes are fun and give us meaning " life is still pretty meaningless and death is the only true democracy."). Tough talk for a girl next door. I'll take my Vowell straight.
15 Entertaining and Endlessly Informative
Sarah Vowell's writing captured my fancy from the beginning, with her wit, sarcasm, honesty and style. She is an unabashed and unashamed history geek, whose idea of a fun vacation is touring the graves of presidents and other historical figures. But, she is never, ever dull. Vowell loves her subject matter, but her unique and witty writing makes the journey not only informative, but entertaining.
This collection of essays is more educational and specific than 'Take the Cannoli' or 'The Partly Cloudy Patriot'. I loved those books, and their style was a collection of essays on diverse topics. In this book, Vowell sticks to the stories of the events and people surrounding the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. She knows minute facts and is a veritable fount of historical knowledge. You will learn details you never knew or thought you wanted to know. You will be very glad you had your history lessons expanded by Sarah Vowell.
Imagine if your high school Civics class were taught by a folk singer and part-time comedienne, and you will get some idea of what you have here. Sarah Vowell just gets better with each book. She is not afraid to speak her mind, or to poke holes in legends. She's also not afraid of change. This book would have been risky in the hands of someone dry or who took themselves too seriously. Not Sarah Vowell. Although she takes the subject matter very seriously, she speaks with such enthusiasm and youthful exuberance that you cannot help being drawn in. She is absolutely one of the best essayists today.
16 Entertaining & Informative, Except for the Political Screed
Ms. Vowell has written a charming, quasi-travel book based on her pilgrimage to the sites where three presidents where assassinated: Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. The book is both engaging and enlightening, full of historical trivia that will both amuse and fascinate. Its only shortcoming is the author's undisguised disgust for all things Republican. (Her political biases are revealed early on when she fantasizes about knocking off George W.) Her political judgments are, at times, simplistic, one-sided and boorish. Mercifully, they rear their head infrequently in what is otherwise a delightful book, which I heartily recommend.
17 I Am Not Alone
Sarah Vowell is a quite simply a national treasure. At least, that is, for those people who get her. Her books are always a pleasure but Assassination Vacation is, by far, her best yet. Just when you think that only you alone look at history in the same obessive, personal way along comes someone who is even more quirkily, even charmingly, obessed. After being ridiculed for ordering a T-shirt with Lewis Powell's image and the word "MAD" on it and then having to explain to people who this is and what it means (and not daring to mention that, despite his quite heinous act, finding Powell a little dreamy), it was with great pleasure to read the author discuss him in slightly similar terms. She makes me a little less embarassed to be a history nerd of long standing. So many of her pilgramiges throughout the book seem very real to me and she brings such life and humour into her personal quests that the reader may be left with as strong a passion for history as the author, which is a glorious thing. History is never dead, least of all when Sarah Vowell gets ahold of it.
18 I'll buy a Vowell, Pat.
Actually, two. Or maybe three. Or as many as I want! Sarah Vowell has produced a delightfully charming, witty, and introspective look at, of all topics, presidential assassination, in her new witty and evocative book "Assassination Vacation".
Those of us who know Vowell from her numerous and witty appearances on the highly respected "This American Life" series know exactly what to expect when picking up a Vowell book: something interesting, funny, with pieces of introspection thrown in. She delivers her promise in her new tome. Vowell, a self-avowed history nut, decides to drag certain hapless aquaintances around the places associated with three presidential assassinations: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.
Along the way, she shares information she has researched or learned, which makes this book one of her more scholarly, if that word could ever be applied here. She actually makes history more palpable, more real for people to digest in an entertaining way. How many of us would desire reading a book about the famed assassin Leon Cgolgosz? Put Vowell's name on the cover, slap a salty title on the book, and bang, we're lining up book-in-hand to purchase it. (Oh, and by the way, Vowell finally deciphers the mystery of pronouncing Cgolgosz, which is.... is... hmmm, I suddenly can't remember).
Whenever you read a piece by Vowell, invariably, you never read it in your own voice, but her Sarah's voice ringing through, or was it Violet Parr from the Incredibles... oh wait, it's the SAME person). I guess that's the mark of a good writer, that she has developed her own style strong enough for us to hear her reading it to us. At any rate, this history nut who also goes ballistic whenever he comes across a plaque, gives this book five stars for a truly enjoyable read from a truly enjoyqable writer.
19 If only Vowell wrote the texts....
I've never really gotten the whole idea behind "American Studies" in universities. I really did not enjoy history as a student. If only Sarah Vowell had written the texts or been the teacher. She is a history nerd, geek, whatever--she is brilliant, laugh out loud funny, and earnest all at the same time. Her take is on three presidents who were assasinated (the majority of the book describing Lincoln's life, assasination, and the lives of his assasins). This book is something of a departure from her previous two collections of esssays, which ranged over a wide variety of topics. This book is more focused, but Vowell's voice and wit are intact, even more entertaining than in previous volumes. I hope Vowell's next book tells us about Hollywood, animation, and her other passions on the heels of her performing a voice in The Incredibles. There has to be so much fodder for her droll observations there. Sedaris might be getting a little stale these days; Vowell certainly is not.
20 Classic Vowell!!!
"Going to Ford's Theater to watch a play is like going to Hooters for food." So begins this fun filled romp through the murders of three presidents. Filled with quirky tales and little known facts, Sarah Vowell makes history fun again. Highly Recommended!!!
