Customer Reviews

Assassination Vacation

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(67)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

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.

I have read "Take the Cannoli" and am halfway through "The Partly Cloudy Patriot", I read these books because Assassination Vacation was the best book I've read by an uncelebrated author in my life. Sarah Vowell is witty and independent, she makes one feel a connection to her and a profound enlightened guilt at the loss of history.
The assassinations of Lincoln, McKinley, and Garfield are the book's topic. But the true value of Vowell's Vacation is the wonderment of where we came from, and how men who shaped the world are remembered only by small bronze plaques that are at once unremarkable and intriguing. For any kid that was in AP or Honors US History this book will make you grin remembering the stories layed out on chalkboards that seemed so dull then, but Vowell gives them meaning and life.
She is neurotic, patriotic, intelligent, witty, and alluring; in other words she is a perfect political writer. There is no paragraph that seems a waste of time. No story that isn't fascinating. You become a small child staring up at the Lincoln Memorial again, jaw on the floor, eyes wide staring at the man who saved the Union. And you feel a quiet drumming in your chest to do something about it, to make people remember what matters.

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.

The book is fascinating not only for the historical trivia it provides, but the author's introspective look at herself. She knows she's weird, but she also can't understand why everyone is not as fascinated as she is with presidential assasinations. Her precocious and morbid nephew is fascinating as well.

She has a fond affection for Garfield and McKinley. She worships Lincoln. She totally hates G. W. Bush. She humanizes the assassins without excusing them. She likes to tie the assassinations together by showing the historical thread.

It is a very remarkable book. I disagree with her on several points, but I am fully entertained at all times. The depth of scholarship is amazing and her journey to different historical sites provides a list of potential vacation sites for history buffs that will last for years.

The intelligent, witty, slightly neurotic and definitely morbid Vowell strikes again with her personal journey on the trail of three presidential assasinations (two of them largely forgotten). Only someone like Vowell could turn this potentially dark topic into something funny and interesting. Though not intended as a pure history, there is plenty of historical tidbits thrown into this commentary, woven into Vowell's contemporary experience and personal voice. Highly entertaining!

You're about to read a book about 3 U.S. presidential assassinations. (1) The book will include some information on the assassins, the culture of the US at the time they were killed, and what remains to honor the fallen presidents today. (2) you're about to have a kick-in-the-pants good time.
Those two concepts sound incongruous, but the really fun part is experiencing the author, Sarah Vowell, pull them together chapter by chapter. The author is opinionated, and open about it. She doesn't like the Bush administration and says so. If that is enough to keep you from enjoying this book, give it a pass. If you're on the more rational side, you ought to have a ball. I did not know that Abraham Lincoln's son Robert was actually present at 3 assassinations. I howled with laughter when Vowell describes him as a sort of Zelig of presidential doom. I did not know that the original Oneida Commune embraced free love. I loved it when Vowell sums up their religious theology as "Let's move upstate and sleep around". Vowell is smart, sassy, and neurotic, luckily for us, she is also obsessed with history. Seeing presidential assassinations through her eyes is just about as much fun as assassinations can get. You may think that a severe understatement, but if you read this book, you'll know what I mean. Begin sceptical, finish laughing (and slightly more informed).

Well, now, it seems we have some rather distinct differences about Sarah Vowell's writing style. Though I have not read all of the reviews, those that I have read do not criticize the veracity of her factual statements. It is clear from her anecdotal descriptions of various events in her past that she has a passion for history and historic detail.

I also think that some of her interpretations of historical events may get her into hot, but not scalding water. After all, this is the stuff of historians, who argue over interpretations of detail all the time. Most of these debates are never resolved, and it is understanding the differing viewpoints that reveals the history for what it really is--real life. In this sense, I find Vowell's descriptions of events to be incredibly refreshing. She does tend to bring the realities of events into a clearer focus by delving into the failures and even the dark sides of individuals who we know mostly through 2-dimensional mythologies. Her sense of irony is impeccable. It seems to me that it is primarily her lively descriptions of these realities that captures the approval of the majority of those who have commented.

Alas, Sarah is also incapable of leaving her political views out of the scenarios. The few criticisms she attracts seem to dwell upon this aspect of her writing. If you find this too distracting, especially if you have conservative leanings, then I fear you will be unable to look past it. While I do find these comments to mar her fundamentally sound approach to history, I am not so myopic as to let it avert my interest from a truly interesting and penetrating view of historical events. I think that the vast majority of readers will find they have the same (forgiving) reaction.

Sarah Vowell's very chatty and informal overview of the first three successful presidential assassinations manages to chart, in its off-kilter way, a compelling if highly selective version of American history from the Civil War to the Spanish-American War through a series of anecdotes concerning the assassinations, the presidents who were the victims, the assassins themselves, and most of all the U.S. historical events associated with these events which Vowell manages to visit with the help of her friends and family, and where she meets a charming assortment of local volunteers who become the unofficial heroes of her narrative. Even if you're well versed in Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS, which explores much of the same territory in a completely different manner (and which Vowell enthuses over at the very beginning of her narrative), there's still much to find new and interesting here, and Vowell's candidness about her political affiliations and enthusiasms are very refreshing.

Vowell does identify herself on the bookjacket as "a McSweeney's person," and for better or worse that is a fairly accurate self-assessment. On the plus side, the book is charming, hip, ironic, and clever. On the other, it can be a bit self-consciously twee (favoring anachronistic terms in her writing like "looky-loos" and "mosey"), it's in strong need of an editor, and Vowell seems to need to tell us constantly how many supportive and brilliant friends and relations she has. It's almost impossible to nitpick, though, about someone who can be fervent and honest about her nerdy love for American history. This is a fun book to read.

I am a fan of Sarah Vowell. I enjoy her commentaries on NPR and as part of this American Life. I LOVED Take the Cannoli, but somehow Assasination Vacation didn't live up totally to it's glory. It was good and I would recommend it, but it pales a little in the shadow of Take the Cannoli.

But being a slightly morbid person, I couldn't pass up a book themed on assasinations, especially from someone so wry and amusingly bitter.

Sarah Vowell, most fascinating of young writers, has taken on a macabre subject - the first three assassinations of US presidents - the topic of her obsessions and nightmares. TV interviews with Vowell might give the impression that this is a lighthearted romp through the deaths of our leaders. While her book has its funny and ironic moments, Vowell truly has spent quite a bit of time haunted by this topic...much to the detriment of her social life.

The book follows Vowell and her sister, young nephew and various boyfriends, as they travel to various sites associated with the assassinated presidents. Some sites are neglected statues to nearly forgotten leaders like Garfield and McKinley. Some sites hold more public interest, relating to artifacts associated with Abraham Lincoln. There are stops at obscure museums contain bits of bone from Lincoln or his assassin. Former sites associated with the assassination night - such as the house where Secretary of State Seward was attacked - that are now gone, victims of a century's worth of urban change. A truly creepy scene occurs in the woods near the site where John Wilkes Booth died: Vowell stumbles upon a hidden shrine to the killer of our 16th president. Sic Semper Tyrannus, indeed.

Throughout, there is the human fascination with the remains of the dead - to desire to personally see or hold a portion of the body of a person one has known only through reading or lore. Vowell explores her own need to handle or visit these modern relics, and this brings the reader an echo of the semi-religious pursuit of connection with people of the past. To her credit, Vowell moves away from the merely macabre to discuss the political atmosphere at the time of the assassinations. Garfield's death allows her to explore the Oneida Commune in upstate New York frequented by psychotic assassin Charles Guiteau, probably the only guy who couldn't score in that free-love environment. McKinley's death gives Vowell a chance to examine the anarchist movement that was so attractive to immigrants and those dispossessed by Gilded Age America. She takes a detour to give witness to Teddy Roosevelt's heroics - including a pit stop in the Spanish-American War to witness the putatively heroic ride up San Juan hill that cemented his reputation for bravery.

While enjoyable and informative, the book left me wanting more information about Garfield's and McKinley's deaths. Obsessed with still-extant remains, Vowell sometimes skimps on details of the actual events. And sometimes her liberal politics and observations on her personal life take her too far off-topic. But other items - like her hilarious focus on Robert Lincoln - son of Old Abe - make up for these imperfections. Bizarrely present at the assassination or death of three presidents, Lincoln earns Vowell's nickname "Jinxy McDeath." Rubbing shoulders with so much high-profile death, Lincoln himself had a long if ordinary life, living long enough to attend the 1923 dedication of his father's memorial in Washington. It is these details that make "Assassination Vacation" a delicious read, and their lack that left me craving more.