There’s something about the way Sarah Vowell writes about history that brings it to life for me. Probably because there’s something about the way that Sarah Vowell writes about people, and history is made of people. It often doesn’t feel that way. (Ironically, there’s a section in here where she tells a story about a time where she ended up yelling at some guy in a supermarket about how the only time it would be interesting to live through history would be if you were there when they discovered the polio vaccine, otherwise it’s all war and natural disasters and the time in between. She manages to be funny while writing this.)
I’ve actually wanted to read Assassination Vacation for about eleven years now, since it was published, when a friend of mine wrote a glowing review of it in our college newspaper, and then almost immediately The Incredibles came out (Sarah Vowell voices Violet in that movie). I was like, who is this Sarah Vowell person who goes on weird assassination vacations and then voices teenage superheroes?? But I kept getting distracted, and the height of my desire to read it coincided with the two years I didn’t have a car and lived on campus, and thus did not have easy access to the public library and very little money to spend on books. So wah wah long story, didn’t read it for forever, but now I have.
The cheekily ingenious conceit behind this book is that Vowell embarks on a sort of historical tourism of the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. This involves visiting their graves, the sites of their demises, important locations in their lives, and all of the same for their assassins, whom Vowell finds just as interesting in parts as their targets. She then writes about not only the experience of visiting those places (including the people she encounters there), but also the history and context of the events and the sites themselves.
If you’ve never read a Sarah Vowell book before, this turns out to be surprisingly fun. If you have, well, you pretty much know what to expect. Vowell gets REALLY enthusiastic about stuff that most people don’t give two shits about, and her enthusiasm is catching. I’m not saying I’m suddenly all about dead presidents, but while I was reading the book, it was interesting and fun. Vowell goes deep in her love of history, like a true nerd of whatever you’re nerdy about, and the book is all the better for it.
I was also surprised by the content of the book. I fully expected to love the Abraham Lincoln section the most, but since I already know so much about the guy, Vowell and her observations were really the main draw there. I knew almost nothing about Garfield or McKinley going in to this book, so I actually enjoyed those sections a little more. (And I now have actual opinions about several presidents and overlooked historical figures! Namely, Garfield was actually kind of a cool guy, McKinley was an asshole, and Teddy Roosevelt was a baller. Don’t even get me started on John Wilkes Booth’s brother, Edwin. That guy was awesome!)
Anyway, you guys should read this book if you like history, especially if you like your history focused on the more obscure human details, with a side of wry, humorous observations. Also if you want to read about how the Oneida tableware and cutlery company was founded by a sex cult from upstate New York.
