Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and, in doing so, investigates the dusty, bumpy roads of her own life. In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell -- widely hailed for her inimitable stories on public radio's This American Life -- ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny C... (show more)
Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and, in doing so, investigates the dusty, bumpy roads of her own life. In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell -- widely hailed for her inimitable stories on public radio's This American Life -- ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people always inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a bad life in sunny California so much worse than a bad life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal arguments haunt the sleepless nights of the true patriot?
Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, themes, icons, and historical moments: Ike, Teddy Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Address, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush's inauguration.
The result is a teeming and engrossing book, capturing Vowell's memorable wit and her keen social commentary.
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I first learned who Sarah Vowell is, not from her books or from her appearances on NPR, but from a short film about her and one of her books that w... (show more)
I first learned who Sarah Vowell is, not from her books or from her appearances on NPR, but from a short film about her and one of her books that was on the DVD of “The Incredibles.” That film interested me enough to read her books and I have been well rewarded. This book is one of her oldest and is a collection of essays that she wrote for various publications. As you might expect from an author who writes essays about current events, many of her essays have not aged well.
The essays cover various topics including trips to North Dakota to see where Teddy Roosevelt lived during his sojourn in the west, a cafeteria at the bottom of the Carlsbad Cavern, Tom Landry, Canadians, and growing up with a fraternal twin sister. Other topics include the presidential election of 2000 and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. It is these essays that seem like ancient history now and reading them makes you wonder if Ms. Vowell would feel the same way eight years after writing them. And overall, there is no theme to carry the book along. These are just random essays that Ms. Vowell wrote for various publications in the period from about 1998 to 2002. They vary in quality and, after ten years, interest. Do I really care what Ms. Vowell thought about Tom Cruise ten years ago?
Anyway, there are some good hits among the misses in this group of essays and if you are a fan of Ms. Vowell’s writing, this is worth reading while you wait for her next book to come along. (show less)
Maybe if I read this back when it was written it would have been more interesting, but I didn't so I found it hard to keep reading. I also didn't ... (show more)
Maybe if I read this back when it was written it would have been more interesting, but I didn't so I found it hard to keep reading. I also didn't find it as humorous as I thought it might be so that didn't help. There were some interesting parts, and I was sympathetic to her point of view. (show less)
Despite being a regular NPR contributor, I admit that I didn’t hear Vowell until a month ago when our local affiliate rebroadcast a talk that she gave here recently. Not only was she hilariously funny – in her signature dry and erudite way – but I remembered that a good friend of mine counts her as a favorite writer. So, naturally, I hemmed and hawed about what book of hers that I would crack open first, and then this 2002 collection of patriotically-themed essays showed up the other day on m... (show more)
Despite being a regular NPR contributor, I admit that I didn’t hear Vowell until a month ago when our local affiliate rebroadcast a talk that she gave here recently. Not only was she hilariously funny – in her signature dry and erudite way – but I remembered that a good friend of mine counts her as a favorite writer. So, naturally, I hemmed and hawed about what book of hers that I would crack open first, and then this 2002 collection of patriotically-themed essays showed up the other day on my library holds after picking it based upon high marks and positive customer reviews on Amazon. (Yes, I find those helpful.)
What I love about Vowell is not only her unabashed liberal patriotism, but also her clever turns of phrase, as well as her oh-so-slight self-deprecating sense of humor. (If she were to lay the last on thick, I would probably have stopped reading. Thank goodness she doesn’t.) Never did I imagine that someone could defend the two-dimensional performances of Tom Cruise in such a loving way – a brilliant streak of writing in “Tom Cruise Makes Me Nervous.” Also, her clever verve in incorporating those nit-witty Wonder Twins of Superfriends fame in her thoughts on being a twin is this side of brilliant.
Many may not share Vowell’s Democratic-leaning politics, but of this there can be no doubt: This woman loves this great crazy country of ours in a way that would make Sarah Palin blush. (Or better yet, cause the latter to look very confused as she wouldn’t get half of what Vowell is saying.) (show less)
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Sarah Vowell is awesome. She's a short, squeaky-voiced New Yorker who used to write music reviews, loves Abe Lincoln, and thinks that it's the height of fun to go to Places of Historical Interest on her vacations. She's a self-confessed history nerd, and she makes you want to become one with her.
I read another of her works a while ago, "Assassination Vacation", about her journey to learn more about our assassinated Presidents and the men who'd done them in. This book is a littl... (show more)
Sarah Vowell is awesome. She's a short, squeaky-voiced New Yorker who used to write music reviews, loves Abe Lincoln, and thinks that it's the height of fun to go to Places of Historical Interest on her vacations. She's a self-confessed history nerd, and she makes you want to become one with her.
I read another of her works a while ago, "Assassination Vacation", about her journey to learn more about our assassinated Presidents and the men who'd done them in. This book is a little different - it's a collection of essays on a wide variety of topics. It starts, of course, with Lincoln, but goes off in all kinds of directions from there. Like why she thinks she's secretly a Canadian, or how much she and her sister have in common with Johnny and Luther Htoo. She talks about the incredibly painful feeling in her gut while she attended the inauguration of George W. Bush and the mild irritation she feels whenever someone compares someone else to Rosa Parks. And then there's the advice to Bill Clinton on how to handle his Presidential library.
The book is a stitch, and it's a nice quick read. Enjoy it, laugh and learn something. (show less)
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