Assassination Vacation

Warning: reading this book could cause sudden and intense interest in President Garfield's commitment to civil service reform, and in weighing brains scooped out of skulls.

I first encountered Sarah Vowell watching the documentary of one of my husband's favorite bands: They Might be Giants. As she mentions in Assassination Vacation, Vowell used to work as a music critic. What I remember about Vowell from the documentary, was her precise voice, self-effacing and side-splitting dry humor, and the fact that she had an awful lot of busts of Lincoln in her house.

So I started the audio book edition of Assassination Vacation because Sarah Vowell had not only written it, she was reading it, too (guest voice actors also include Jon Stewart, Conan O'Brien, and Stephen King, who plays Lincoln). I had so little interest in the period of American history between the Civil War and Roosevelt that I was relieved to hear Vowell begin her book with an enumeration of the things that make her uncomfortable when staying at a Bed and Breakfast.

Assassination Vacation is the story of Vowell's almost autistic devotion to visiting historical landmarks related to presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley, and the men who killed them.

Vowell puts forth the interesting thesis that the articles kept on display at museums and historical sites are the American answer to relics. She is fascinated by the way history has handed down the personal items and sometimes pickled body parts of both the martyred presidents and their assassins.

Like me, Vowell is a New Yorker who never feels the handicap of having no driver's license until she leaves the city. Having expected all her visits to take place in D.C., Maryland, and Springfield, Illinois, I was tickled by the number of relevant landmarks she visited right here in NYC. When she does venture away from the subway, Vowell is obliged to bring friends and family to chauffeur, and their presence provides a repeating cast of amusing characters. And the author's true love of historical plaques and tour guides is endearing.

But, most important, Vowell has has a special talent for making things that happened a long time ago seem comprehensible and relevant to modern audiences. The parallels she draws between current and historical events really do make history come alive.