- ISBN13: 9780743260046
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
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 influenc… More >>
#1 by Grant Barber on June 26th, 2010
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I’ve never really gotten the whole idea behind “American Studies” in universities. I really did not enjoy history as a student. If only Sarah Vowell had written the texts or been the teacher. She is a history nerd, geek, whatever–she is brilliant, laugh out loud funny, and earnest all at the same time. Her take is on three presidents who were assasinated (the majority of the book describing Lincoln’s life, assasination, and the lives of his assasins). This book is something of a departure from her previous two collections of esssays, which ranged over a wide variety of topics. This book is more focused, but Vowell’s voice and wit are intact, even more entertaining than in previous volumes. I hope Vowell’s next book tells us about Hollywood, animation, and her other passions on the heels of her performing a voice in The Incredibles. There has to be so much fodder for her droll observations there. Sedaris might be getting a little stale these days; Vowell certainly is not.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by James Hiller on June 26th, 2010
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Actually, two. Or maybe three. Or as many as I want! Sarah Vowell has produced a delightfully charming, witty, and introspective look at, of all topics, presidential assassination, in her new witty and evocative book “Assassination Vacation”.
Those of us who know Vowell from her numerous and witty appearances on the highly respected “This American Life” series know exactly what to expect when picking up a Vowell book: something interesting, funny, with pieces of introspection thrown in. She delivers her promise in her new tome. Vowell, a self-avowed history nut, decides to drag certain hapless aquaintances around the places associated with three presidential assassinations: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.
Along the way, she shares information she has researched or learned, which makes this book one of her more scholarly, if that word could ever be applied here. She actually makes history more palpable, more real for people to digest in an entertaining way. How many of us would desire reading a book about the famed assassin Leon Cgolgosz? Put Vowell’s name on the cover, slap a salty title on the book, and bang, we’re lining up book-in-hand to purchase it. (Oh, and by the way, Vowell finally deciphers the mystery of pronouncing Cgolgosz, which is…. is… hmmm, I suddenly can’t remember).
Whenever you read a piece by Vowell, invariably, you never read it in your own voice, but her Sarah’s voice ringing through, or was it Violet Parr from the Incredibles… oh wait, it’s the SAME person). I guess that’s the mark of a good writer, that she has developed her own style strong enough for us to hear her reading it to us. At any rate, this history nut who also goes ballistic whenever he comes across a plaque, gives this book five stars for a truly enjoyable read from a truly enjoyqable writer.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Mike on June 26th, 2010
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I have read “Take the Cannoli” and am halfway through “The Partly Cloudy Patriot”, I read these books because Assassination Vacation was the best book I’ve read by an uncelebrated author in my life. Sarah Vowell is witty and independent, she makes one feel a connection to her and a profound enlightened guilt at the loss of history.
The assassinations of Lincoln, McKinley, and Garfield are the book’s topic. But the true value of Vowell’s Vacation is the wonderment of where we came from, and how men who shaped the world are remembered only by small bronze plaques that are at once unremarkable and intriguing. For any kid that was in AP or Honors US History this book will make you grin remembering the stories layed out on chalkboards that seemed so dull then, but Vowell gives them meaning and life.
She is neurotic, patriotic, intelligent, witty, and alluring; in other words she is a perfect political writer. There is no paragraph that seems a waste of time. No story that isn’t fascinating. You become a small child staring up at the Lincoln Memorial again, jaw on the floor, eyes wide staring at the man who saved the Union. And you feel a quiet drumming in your chest to do something about it, to make people remember what matters.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Jeffrey A. Thompson on June 26th, 2010
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The book is fascinating not only for the historical trivia it provides, but the author’s introspective look at herself. She knows she’s weird, but she also can’t understand why everyone is not as fascinated as she is with presidential assasinations. Her precocious and morbid nephew is fascinating as well.
She has a fond affection for Garfield and McKinley. She worships Lincoln. She totally hates G. W. Bush. She humanizes the assassins without excusing them. She likes to tie the assassinations together by showing the historical thread.
It is a very remarkable book. I disagree with her on several points, but I am fully entertained at all times. The depth of scholarship is amazing and her journey to different historical sites provides a list of potential vacation sites for history buffs that will last for years.
Rating: 4 / 5
#5 by CJ on June 26th, 2010
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The intelligent, witty, slightly neurotic and definitely morbid Vowell strikes again with her personal journey on the trail of three presidential assasinations (two of them largely forgotten). Only someone like Vowell could turn this potentially dark topic into something funny and interesting. Though not intended as a pure history, there is plenty of historical tidbits thrown into this commentary, woven into Vowell’s contemporary experience and personal voice. Highly entertaining!
Rating: 5 / 5