Book 2: Assassination Vacation

TITLE: Assassination Vacation
AUTHOR: Sarah Vowell
STARTED: January 5, 2009
FINISHED: January 12, 2009
PAGES: 259
GENRE: Non-Fiction

FIRST SENTENCE: One night last summer, all the killers in my head assembled on stage in Massachusetts to sing show tunes.

SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] 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 lighter diversions 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.

THOUGHTS: Remember when I promised an update about this book? Here it is... in all of its shrunken-from-the-original-thoughts-in-my-head-glory-because-I-was-too-lazy-to-post-a-review-right-after-I-read -it.

Vowell serves up a romping good time - or at least as romping as can be had when the subject of her work is presidential assassination. (Seriously, you'll want to hug Lincoln's son after you read this. Poor fella.) Vowell somehow manages to keep the text above the somber tone that surrounds most books about death, dying, and other bad deeds. In that way, it becomes more about her journey and the people she meets on the road as opposed to a dramatization of assassination.

I found that I liked this book for the storytelling. The facts are nice, the recounting of history is worthwhile, but the story is what had me flying through the pages. What I liked best: Everyone around Vowell didn't just indulge her project they supported her and they added to the road trip that is this book. (Her nephew is awesome.)

Kathleen, however, is right. This book could have done so much more. There were numerous instances where Vowell alights upon a serious idea (the melding of church and state in the way where the state is the church) and then skips right off into another matter. When someone does write a research-based book about public monumentation as religion and the deification of presidents, I'll read that too.

RATING: 7/10 [Very Good]