Assassination Vacation Sarah Vowell
A few years ago I was lucky enough to catch Sarah Vowell read at Revenge of the Bookeaters, an annual event hosted by David Eggers' 826 program to foster writing. I, like most people of discerning taste, am a Pixar fan and therefore recognized her voice as that of Violet from The Incredibles, but it was the first time I had come across her writing. Enjoying her sly, affectionately-sarcastic humor, I made a mental note to check out some of her writing. I'm sorry to say it took me half a decade to make good on that idea, but I was pleased to find it well worth the wait.
Assassination Vacation looks at Vowell's trip around the country to see the places associated with presidents, their assassinations, and the men who pulled the trigger. As we follow her from Washington D.C. to Buffalo to New Jersey we learn not only about the history of the assassinations but about the circumstances surrounding them and the people on the fringe. The doctor who set Booth's leg, for example, or the waiter who punched McKinley's assassin. The tales are peppered with anecdotes, references to to the musical Assassins and Vowell's own engaging reflections on the downsides of B&B's and her relationship with her nephew.
Having a perverted interest in the Lincoln assassination since the age of seven, not to mention a love of musicals and my own New York mindset, I loved every bit of this book. It was engaging, informative, easy to read while still intelligent and humorous. My one qualm, if I have one, is that only three of the four assassinations are covered. Without explanation, JFK is left off the list, only being tangentially mentioned in reference to other incidents. Since much has been written about that day in Texas, it might be that Vowell felt too much had already been written, but for someone born after 1980 and new to the history presidential deaths, it was a stark omission.
Still, her attention to detail to the other three events more than makes up for it. All in all, a fantastic read and one I highly recommend.
Take the Cannoli
Sarah Vowell
Having enjoyed Assassination Vacation as much as I did, I was eager to dive into another Vowell tome, and Take the Cannoli seemed the perfect follow-up. having recently returned from a stint abroad, I am in the process of rediscovering and falling for America, and so a collection of essays from "the new world' as the cover proclaims sounded just up my alley.
Unfortunately, this collection of essays is just that, and therefore falls into the trap that seems unavoidable for people writing short non-fiction pieces: the awkward ending. I found this to be my biggest problem with I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley, series of pieces reflecting on the life of a 20-something female in New York. Time and time again an enjoyable, thoughtful essay would fall apart in the last paragraph, sounding much like the end of an essay written by a college sophomore struggling to make her word count the night before the paper is due.
Vowell, a more seasoned writer, is able to to avoid this problem more than Crosley, and essays such as "Ixnay on My Way," "What I See When I Look at the Face on a $20 Bill," and "American Goth" are complete, well-written and cohesive. But that doesn't go for all of them, and often I felt she wrapped them up awkwardly, trying to impart a lesson or moral on something that should have been simply an amusing musing.*
While Vowell's voice is as sharp as ever, Take the Cannoli feels more like waiting-room fodder. Something you can dip in and out of, enjoying in the moment but not mourning terribly if you hear "The doctor will see you know" before finishing the page.
*notice how I do precisely this in the Shakespeare sound off...as they say, "I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.
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