I was not quite as enamored with this one as I was with Assassination Vacation. I don’t blame Vowell — she does her best here, and quite a few lines made me laugh out loud — it was just not a gripping subject for me. “I’m always disappointed when I see the word ‘Puritan’ tossed around as shorthand for a bunch of generic, boring, stupid, judgmental killjoys. Because to me, they are very specific, fascinating, sometimes brilliant, judgmental killjoys who rarely agreed on anything except that […]
Another politically charged road trip
I know Sarah Vowell from her numerous appearances on the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; after various reviews of Vowell’s work, many in the last month, I figured I’d give her a shot. “History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between.” It took me a while to get interested in this one. I think my primary problem was leading with Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. In history class you hear about Lincoln and Kennedy’s assassinations ad naseum; while […]
“When I think about my relationship with America, I feel like a battered wife: Yeah, he knocks me around a lot, but boy, he sure can dance.”
I love Sarah Vowell. I do. With this book complete, I believe I have all of her books except the newly released Lafayette in the Somewhat United States. However, there is something to be said for reading books in a timely manner, or reading them in publication order. I hadn’t ever really worried about that with Ms. Vowell’s books, but Take the Cannoli is one of her earlier works and is an anthology. They are in some cases slightly dated, or I’ve read them (or […]
Everyone Give it up for America’s Favorite Fighting Frenchman
Like many people, I’ve been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack non-stop and learning more about the American Revolutionary War than I ever did in school. Lafayette is easily one of the coolest characters in the musical, but also in real life. I’d been meaning to get to one of Sarah Vowell’s books, so when she published Lafayette in the Somewhat United States in October, it was kismet. Vowell tells the story of the teenaged Marquis de Lafayette leaving his family in France to join the […]