Assassination Vacation - a book review

Well I finally finished the second recommendation Lea lent me.  It took me a little longer than Sundays because it required a little closer of a reading.  This won't be a gory post, but it does have to do with death.

Sarah Vowell is quirky.  She's funny mostly because she recognizes her quirkiness, and this book, having no knowledge of her other writings, is a tribute to her idiosyncrasies. Assassination Vacation is all about her strange habit of taking vacations to visit historical sites, but not just any historical sites, she particularly enjoys those having anything to do with attempted or successful assassination attempts. Wait, WHAT?! Who does that?! Sarah does. 

After she introduces us to the idea that people in this world do take vacations for the express purpose of visiting important (and not so important) historical sites, we begin our journey through American presidential assassination. She starts off with the first one that pops into most people's mind (I'm imagining many of you thought of JFK, but let's stick to chronological order, shall we?) Lincoln. So we start our journey at the Lincoln memorial.  Vowell goes into details about what she thinks about the memorial (actually several times throughout the book, Lincoln seems to be her favorite) and then how it was commissioned, made, and dedicated as well as any and every other microscopic piece of contributing fact. She explains to those of us who scraped by in AP American history that Mr. Booth's attempt on Lincoln's life wasn't the only one, that there was in fact a concerted effort on the part of several die-hard Confederates to take out several leaders at once.  Fortunately these other attempts weren't quite as successful, nor were they nearly as famous.

Because of Vowell's love of Lincoln, she explores the histories of the conspiracy which resulted in his death in some detail, including tracing down the history of the infamous and pardoned Dr. Mudd.  She spends so much time on the Lincoln assassination and its associated tributaries, that I've read half the book and I wonder how much of it is devoted to JFK. 

Well, not so fast!  Garfield is next.  Garfield?! Yes, and the whole history of Chester Arthur.  Did I mention I didn't care very much for American history and that was why my grades weren't very good? WHO IS CHESTER ARTHUR? I'm kidding, I read Vowell's book and know he was the unfortunate vice president who had been picked to heal the then divided republican party.  Garfield was a boring character marked by his short duration in office which allowed Arthur to actually implement certain civic reforms as a tribute to Garfield's memory. Fascinating. 

McKinley was a little more interesting, if only because of his vice president. No but seriously, he was more interesting because he had more time in office and he made some internationally important choices which would have far reaching effects. In fact, McKinley, Vowell hints, may be the kernel from which all American preemptive warfare grows (read: Spanish-American war).  There are those who would argue (including Vowell) the Cuban Missile Crisis was McKinley's fault.  If you're like me, you just sung ominous music in your head.

After the cursory explorations of Garfield and McKinley, I felt sort of gypped.  I mean, I wanted Vowell to go find the little hovel where Czolgosz was born, and the factories where he worked to thoroughly explain the working conditions at the time, but no one seemed to be very interested in maintaining those types of things.  Maybe it was the ethnic name, or maybe the publisher or the editor thought no one would be interested (Hi publisher editor guy, I'm quirky too and I want to hear about the other crazies who killed presidents!). 

Instead of getting to read a full Vowell analysis of JFK (which by the way, I was really looking forward to) we get a Sunrise Easter morning service happening on Lincoln Memorial for closing.  Okay, maybe JFK is too recent and too interesting.  Maybe he would have overshadowed Garfield (who didn't?) or McKinley (he did deal with the Cuban Missile crisis for which McKinley laid the foundations). 

But seriously, the back cover person pissed me off.  I like to think that Vowell didn't write the back cover summary for this book, because she is brutally honest in her writing (which I love).  She doesn't pull any punches.  The back cover is full of lies.  It reads as though the book is going to give an overview not only of presidential assassinations (the implication is all will be covered and this book was written and published in the last 5 years) but also the botched attempts made against presidents like Roosevelt, Reagan, and Ford.  I wanted to hear more about those too!  Instead they're given a gloss over in a paragraph or two before moving on to successful assassinations. 

All this said, even though the book was seriously Lincoln heavy, Vowell is a pleasure to read.  Her perspective, unabashed honesty, and idiosyncratic approach is enjoyable, even when discussing things as morbid as the trial of Charles Guiteau.  I think, if she drinks wine, we could definitely have very entertaining conversations over a bottle of Syrah.