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The Partly Cloudy Patriot Paperback – October 1, 2003
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In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell travels through the American past and in doing so ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny California so much worse than a bad life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal arguments haunt the sleepless nights of the true patriot?
Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, themes, icons, and historical moments: Ike, Teddy Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Address, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush's inauguration.
The result is a teeming and engrossing book, capturing Vowell's memorable wit and her keen social commentary.
- Print length197 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateOctober 1, 2003
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.56 x 8.44 inches
- ISBN-100743243803
- ISBN-13978-0743243803
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San Francisco Chronicle Even though her pieces make us laugh about every fourth line, we feel as if there's something more significant at work....A writer of fierce observational powers who wears her intelligence and wit as comfortably as an old pair of pajamas.
Entertainment Weekly Droll, intelligent, and persuasive.
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Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (October 1, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 197 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0743243803
- ISBN-13 : 978-0743243803
- Item Weight : 7.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.56 x 8.44 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #713,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,236 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
- #2,377 in Essays (Books)
- #2,534 in Literary Criticism & Theory
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About the author

Sarah Vowell is the author of the bestselling Assassination Vacation, The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Take the Cannoli, and Radio On. She is a contributing editor for public radio's "This American Life." She is also a McSweeney's person and the voice of teenage superhero Violet Parr in Pixar Animation Studios' "The Incredibles."
Photo by Tammy Lo (tammylo) (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Sarah Vowell's collection of essays, The Partly Cloudy Patriot, published in 2002 represent her voice as she was coming into her 30's. This is my lead thought as I try to give you a bottom line first. She is at her best when facing a central fact of how great it is to be an American. We achieve great things, often by cooperation as a team and by obeying government. But we are most American when we disagree, do not get along and act suspicious of power. In her best essays she is touching, humorous and almost teary eyed about her country. At her worst she can be too focused on herself as a nerd, her status as a liberal policy wonk, as a city slicker and almost all the usual white female worries excepting body image. I wonder how she will write when she grows up.
WWWWWW
The Partly Cloudy Patriot begins with a wonderful essay as Ms Vowell attends the annual battlefield reading of the Gettysburg Address.. By the end, The Wife , myself and some folks who let me quote to them had been moved, laughed aloud and had some serious things to ponder. Not bad work for an 8 page (I have the Hard Back editions with fairly large print) essay.
In a later essay she will investigate a campaign lie that was told about her candidate, Al Gore. She goes to the source of the misquote, establish the correct quote and the context of the quote; then names the reporters who got it wrong before pointing to the television commentators who abused the misquote. For many this would have been enough. Being partizanshe could have blasted the evil mindedness of those who made this misquote into another hammer on the victimized Gore. Instead she presents the misquote in context. Meaning that Gore had placed himself in a position wherein reporters stuck following him about would be inclined to hear him wrong and not think to check. The world of politics has devolved into an ever more divided, take no prisoners, admit no error world. In the Left/Right divide of 2015, one wonders if she would still put in the extra effort.
Returning to Gore the candidate in another essay she will explain that part of the job of a political candidate is to entertain. Actual knowledge of the subject, beyond a Trivial Pursuit level is often unwanted. Better a president you could swap stories with over a beer than one with a complex understanding of complex issues. Perhaps this is over simplified, but Ms Vowell's conclusion is that Gore needed to have been a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There he would have learned to be more chary about letting people see how smart he was.
She makes the case for the underground lunch room at Carlsbad Caverns. She agrees with The US Park Service that it was a mistake and gets between the visitor and a more authentic experience of the natural world 700 feet down. But she argues that the mistake tends to make the experience more a human one and if possible more exotic. My own thought is that the lunchroom may have served "real food" , that is locally cooked food by people using individual imagination and local diner techniques. Now I suspect that the 2015 lunch counter has sandwiches from some nationwide distributor with no more personality than plastic wrapped meals in a low end franchise food outlet.
What keeps these essays from being better is the semi-neurotic voice of Ms. Vowell. Her hang ups, her hesitations, her misspent youth crowd too many pages. Sometimes I felt as if I were scoring essays from some nation-wide student essay contest. "What America Means to Me". Perhaps now that she has traveled more, done more and experienced more, she has decided if she is writing about people and events beyond herself, or if her proper subject is herself. I like her better outwardly focused.
Vowell has a "nerd" obsession with American history and civics. Confirming her nerd credentials is a high school experience lacking the usual teenage graces with the concomitant bad gym memories. These themes, especially the civics lessons, absorb most of the essays in this book. Such is her voice, her ability to get to the heart of a matter and finding the heart not exactly where we generally think of it being located in the given matter, and her sheer passion that book is informative, insightful and immensely appealing. My favorites include her exploration of what it is to be a "nerd," a look at how Al Gore's nerdiness not only recommends him as a national leader but also intruded on his success in the media and public image, her tour of Presidential libraries (posed as a letter to Bill Clinton as he was leaving office and building his own), Teddy Roosevelt and the Gettysburg address. Her essays on the 2000 election and 9-11-2001 are also strong and bring fresh perspectives to both topics. She treats the office of President with abiding respect but makes no bones about not appreciating George Bush. Her criticisms and conclusions about him flow from analysis of his leadership and choices. She loves the American way but understands that it is flawed, hence our "partly cloudy" patriot.
The only reason I nick a star off my rating for this book is that having first read the author's most recent book, ASSASSINATION VACATION, this looks by comparison more like the training wheels or practice for that mature achievement. Also, many of the essays are topical and you are left wondering, given more recent events like the 2004 election and the Iraq war, what the author would say today. However, I do recommend this. I think Vowell would be surprised to hear herself called "cool" but that's exactly what she is.
When the session was over, I wanted more so I bought THE PARTLY-CLOUDY PATRIOT.
The book reads more like a journal than a collection of essays. Perhaps the best one is about Al Gore. Sarah Vowell sees herself as a nerd and although she's a staunch democrat she most readily identifies with other nerds. Al Gore wrote a book on the environment, among other nerdish things, so he qualifies. This essay resonated with me because I've often wondered why we don't have more stringent requirements for the job of president.
Another sample of her caustic wit was her essay on Teddy Roosevelt, who was part nerd and part adventurer. Her father used to tell her about Teddy's problems with asthma. He could do nothing except stay in bed and read. "Ew," said her sister. "Sigh," said Sarah. Staying in bed all day was a lifelong ambition for her.
I have to admit that I was expecting THE PARTLY-CLOUDY PATRIOT to be a real slam session, but that's not the case. Sarah attends George W. Bush's inauguration, bending over backwards to be fair. Although she cries when W. takes the oath, she chastises a friend who boos Staff Sergeant Alec T. Maly when he sings "My Country �Tis of Thee."
Sarah Vowell is a commentator on National Public Radio's THIS AMERICAN LIFE. I'd like to see her on national television crossing swords with the conservative blowhards.









