Be Specific About Books In Pursuance Of Assassination Vacation
| Original Title: | Assassination Vacation |
| ISBN: | 074326004X (ISBN13: 9780743260046) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, Edwin Booth, Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley, James A. Garfield, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, Robert Todd Lincoln |
Sarah Vowell
Paperback | Pages: 258 pages Rating: 3.97 | 39742 Users | 3779 Reviews
Chronicle Supposing Books Assassination Vacation
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 all kinds of lighter diversions along the way 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.
Itemize Appertaining To Books Assassination Vacation
| Title | : | Assassination Vacation |
| Author | : | Sarah Vowell |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 258 pages |
| Published | : | 2006 by Simon Schuster (first published March 29th 2005) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Humor. Travel. Writing. Essays. Audiobook. Autobiography. Memoir |
Rating Appertaining To Books Assassination Vacation
Ratings: 3.97 From 39742 Users | 3779 ReviewsEvaluate Appertaining To Books Assassination Vacation
Another one I didn't finish, and I'll try and save you the trouble of starting. The book was relatively entertaining when it was talking about the assassinations of the title (Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley), especially Lincoln - Vowell devotes the largest slice of the book to him and John Wilkes Booth. However, over time I got tired of the author taking every opportunity to take juvenile shots at the Bush administration, the Iraq war, and Republicans in general. It might have been interestingUgh! Sarah Vowell, you annoy the hell out of me, on This American Life and in this book. I always think, "that would be totally funny if that happened to me" but her writing is never sufficient enough to translate it to the page. She's just not a good storyteller--she wants to be David Sedaris but she can't seem to pull it off. I also can't stand when people go on about how so-called nerdy they are when you know they secretly relish being weird and quirky. I have a friend that confuses her with
Somehow I listened to this entire audiobook in two days. I felt burned by politics and somehow in my head this translated to - more politics! I thought reading about assassinations might be... refreshing. Enter Sarah Vowell with her strange voice, and a host of stories of informational plaques that she visited around the country, and other monuments to assassination attempts. There is a lot on Lincoln, but I still learned some tidbits. Did you know it is likely President Lincoln was laughing
Some interesting historical detail here, but I found the book as a whole a rather uneven jumble, not nearly as interesting as I had expected. And the audiobook was simply dreadful. While I'd enjoyed Vowell's unique voice on NPR, etc., I now realize that such enjoyment is limited to small doses. And the inclusion of celebrity narrators for direct quotes didn't work at all, making this one of the clunkiest audio adaptations I've encountered.
In every creative writing program, an insanely big deal is made of Voicediscovering a Voice, having a Voice, having a unique Voice, maintaining your unique Voice, I cant follow the story but oh that Voice, yes its misogyny but what a Voice!The concept of voice is another in the long list of writing program sillynesses (others: science fiction isnt legitimate writing, its not O.K. to admit influence from well-known writers, and the word poignant means something). But there is no doubt that having
The only high school class I've ever fallen asleep in was American History. I've long suspected that this had a lot more to do with the quality of the teacher than the subject itself. My suspicions were confirmed by reading this book - if Sarah Vowell had been my teacher, I would have been WIDE awake.Ms. Vowell is, to be sure, something of an unusual person. I don't know a lot of folks who have much of an interest the subject of presidential assassination, let alone in the assassinations of such
Vowell's blend of humor, travelogue, and history works for me. I regularly chuckle and "oooh, interesting" when I read her work. Assassination Vacation was engaging and fun. In her signature style, Vowell delves into the assassination plots (and the assassins) for three US presidents: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley - all in the latter-half of the 19th-century. Lincoln's assassination (expectedly) gets the largest page count, but it includes some interesting historical notes - and some very
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