Monday, April 18, 2005

2005 book 43

sarah vowell's assassination vacation
i think this may be my favorite sarah vowell book, not only b/c i am a huge history nerd, but b/c it just flows better as a book than her other stuff, which really, really read as collections of essays stuck together. but here, all the stories are connected, the same themes are evident throughout, and so on. although there is some discussion of vrious great assassinated americans, vowell primarily concentrates on lincoln, garfield, and mckinley, though she does meander around--which i like, by the way--through other historical figures and events and throws in plenty of pop culture. my favorite chapter was the one on garfield, which had some great material on the oneida community (best religious sect ever!) and on peter gallagher's eyebrows. also, he was apparently a big book nerd! aww, good ol' garfield. this book is a boon to american history buffs and gives some credence to little-known, mostly-forgotten americans.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i notice that, like _partly cloudy patriot_, the front cover is a david levinthal photo. he's great.

Alicia K. said...

i had no idea--thanks for pointing it out. :)