Can Assassinations Be Fun? Yep!

I am ever so slightly obsessed with Sarah Vowell, the American author, journalist, essayist, and social commentator.  I cannot believe that I haven't written any book reviews of Vowell's texts and it is something that is long overdue. For anyone who does not know about this writer, you are missing an amazing storyteller. In addition to hearing Vowell's commentary on NPR's This American Life and her many hilarious appearances on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, I have been fortunate to read two of her books (Take the Cannolli, Partly Cloudy Patriot) and am always amused by her observations on life, but until yesterday, I had not yet read her much lauded book, Assassination Vacation (2005). 

Summary:  "Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.

From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult."  (book jacket)

Review:  The reason I ended up reading Vowell's book over this weekend is because a colleague and I are assigning a portion of the book (the Lincoln assassination) to be read with our literacy class, so I definitely needed to read the text before the students read it. But I would have eventually gotten around to reading this book because of my affection for Vowell's writing. In this funny and evocative book, she has produced a delightfully charming, witty, and introspective look at, of all topics, presidential assassinations. 

Fans of Sarah Vowell know exactly what to expect when picking up a Vowell book: something interesting and funny, with pieces of reflection thrown in. As always, she delivers the same in this book. Vowell, a self-avowed history nut, decides to drag certain hapless acquaintances around the places associated with three presidential assassinations: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. Like Vowell, I have a fascination with the Lincoln assassination and knew quite a bit about it before reading her text and yet, I still learned several new things about this sad time in our nation's history. I would gladly have been dragged around the country on her assassination vacations.

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? Believe me, I've tried - snoozefest!  But 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.

Whenever you read a piece by Vowell, invariably, you never read it in your own voice, but hear 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, as a mild history nut, I give this book five stars for a truly enjoyable read from a truly enjoyable writer.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars