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    Assassination Vacation
    Assassination Vacation
    Assassination Vacation
    Audiobook (abridged)7 hours

    Assassination Vacation

    Written by Sarah Vowell

    Narrated by Jon Stewart, Conan O'Brien, Stephen King and Dave Eggers

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    New York Times bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates and contributor to NPR’s This American Life Sarah Vowell embarks on a road trip to sites of political violence, from Washington DC to Alaska, to better understand our nation’s ever-evolving political system and history.

    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 influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue—it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and—the author’s favorite—historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateApr 4, 2005
    ISBN9780743550291
    Author

    Sarah Vowell

    Called "a national treasure" by David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell has been a contributing editor to public radio’s This American Life since 1996. She is also the author of the bestsellers Take the Cannoli and The Partly Cloudy Patriot.

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    Reviews for Assassination Vacation

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    • 4/5
      A collection of essays relating to presidential assassinations. I should state up front that I love Sarah Vowell, and it would be difficult for her to do much wrong in my eyes. She focuses on the nooks and crannies of history, seeing how the same things do tend to happen again and again, without anyone learning their lesson. This is book is probably her most fluid, feeling like a story someone you haven't seen in a while might tell you.

      The essays are more chapters than essays, but she still has enough digressions from the main plot to make it feel more conversational than most books about a particular historical vein. She manages to work in snippets about her sister and nephew, more than a dash of current politics (She's an unabashed Liberal), and to refer to Robert Todd Lincoln as "Jinxy McDeath".
    • 5/5
      If you had told me that I would read and enjoy a book about presidential assassinations, I would have said you were crazy. My preferred genres are chick lit and historical fiction. But, I loved Assassination Vacation! I decided to give this a try after seeing so many good reviews, and reading the first few pages on Amazon.com. I was laughing from the very beginning, and couldn't wait to read more. So much so, that I didn't want to wait to get it from Amazon, and went down to my local Borders to buy it that same day. I read it in just two days.It was funny and snarky in the tradition of Jen Lancaster and Laurie Notaro, with the added bonus of actual historical facts. Like all of us, I knew the basic facts of Lincoln's assassination, but I didn't know some of the more interesting details. And I knew nothing about McKinley's and Garfield's assassinations - what I had learned in school didn't stick with me. But, now after reading this book, I know a lot more, and I think I'll remember it, because it was so entertaingly told.For me, President Garfield will now always be Mr. Loner McBookworm. LOL! And Robert Todd Lincoln will be Jinxy McDeath.I highly recommend this book. Even if you think this isn't your cup of tea, give it a try. It'll be worth it.
    • 4/5
      I have heard Sarah Vowell on NPR and found her narratives entertaining, but not entertaining enough to overcome the annoyance of listening to her nasal, whiny voice. I stumbled onto this book in paperback just before a cross country trip. I share the author's interest in presidential history (without the morbid emphasis), and her inability to bypass any historical marker, and I thought I might find her writing more bearable than her reading. This turned out to be an enjoyable read for a long trip. Vowell describes her visits to a variety of historic sites with some connection to Presidential assassinations. Docents at these locations must really appreciate such an enthusiastic visitor. She delights in relating minor details and coincidences that elude more serious historians. Most notably, Robert Todd Lincoln's presence at three Presidential assassinations, and the fact that he once fell on a train platform, and was rescued by Edwin Booth, brother of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. I do wonder how Vowell's young nephew will turn out, after being dragged along on so many of these morbid adventures.
    • 4/5
      I've been interested in the stories surrounding the history of assassination since first seeing Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. When Sarah Vowell tries to explain the show to strangers in a bed and breakfast in the prologue, I knew this was going to be my kind of book. As always, Vowell's voice is witty, and filled at once for irreverence to tradition and reverence for the idea of America and what it can be at its best.
    • 4/5
      A little bit predictable, as if Woody Allen and Tim Burton's love child wrote a book, but she really delves into the subject matter and makes it interesting. I wanted to go on a Lincoln Assassination road trip when I finished the book. I'll be reading more of her books. Also, apparently she was the voice of Violet in Pixar's The Incredibles. If only I knew that when I began the book I'd have read it with that inner voice...
    • 4/5
      I am familiar with Vowell from This American Life. I particularly liked this book as it traced the connections between the presidents who had been assassinated. I can hear her voice as she writes this book.
    • 4/5
      This was a recommendation for a family member. Wonderful stories, wonderfully told.
    • 5/5
      It's a book that really benefits from the audio treatment. You can catch the abundance of humor and healthy doses of cynicism that you might miss during a read. It's extremely well written, informative, and entertaining.
    • 5/5
      Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation examines the lives, presidencies, and assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley as well as the people in their lives and their actual assassins, John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, and Leon Czolgosz. She writes in the style of a travelogue, visiting places relevant to the presidents, their assassins, and the sites of the assassinations themselves. These take her to Illinois, throughout Washington, D.C., to Mentor, OH, to Buffalo, NY, throughout areas in Virginia and Maryland, as far away as Dry Tortugas National Park and as close at home as her Oneida teapot. Through it all, she examines the natures of these men and studies their motivations either to seek the presidency or to remove the president. Finally, she concludes with a study of Robert Todd Lincoln, who was unfortunate to either be related to one of the victims, witness one of the assassinations, or just be entering the city when and where another assassination occurred.Vowell’s dry wit comes through, particularly as she wrote in the shadow of the early days of the Iraq War and cannot help but draw political comparisons to other times of political and military turmoil in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For myself, I was particularly interested as I had either visited several of the locations in the past – the McKinley Shooting Rock, the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, Ford’s Theatre, the White House, the Seward House Museum, and more – or was passing through the areas relevant to James Garfield as I read this book, taking the opportunity to visit the President Garfield Memorial and James A. Garfield National Historic Site. Those with an interest in history, especially those who are excited to stop and read an historic plaque or visit the site of an historic event, will find this a particularly enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      I don't remember how we ended up making the decision to choose this for family read aloud time, but somehow we did. I only ended up regretting it a little bit when we got to the bit about the Christian polygamist sex cult.Literally a trip to sites associated with American assassinations -- about not just history, but how we memorialize and consume that history -- from folklore to museum exhibits to musical theater. Filled with the kind of contagious anecdotes you won't be able to stop yourself repeating to those around you. Clear, well-read, and a little quirky. So, a typical Vowell book.
    • 4/5
      This a fun, slightly morbid read going into the depths of presidential assassination's. At times, it was a bit much, where the fine line of interesting sarcasm turned into annoyance, but over all, Its a great read to learn about why a president was assassinated, how it was commemorated, and the theories that surrounded it. I especially liked that Sarah Vowell managed to convince friends and family on these trips, and while not always thrilled to be there, there were always happy to help.
    • 4/5
      Sarah discusses her road trips to locations associated with presidents who have been assassinated (except for Kennedy): Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley. It's interesting and informative--and reminds me again of how little I know of US history. She does take a serious look at things, but there is also plenty of humor. Pretty well done.
    • 3/5
      Early in my book blogging career, I discovered the quirky delights of Sarah Vowell. Assassination Vacation was the last of her works on my list. As it has been several years since I read or listened to anything by her, I was looking forward to her take on presidential assassinations. What she had to say was perfectly irreverent and insightful; all I kept thinking was how different things were from when she wrote the book. Several times within its pages, she expresses her disgust at little Bush and the bogus war he thrust the country into. Our naivete about little Bush being the worst thing to happen to this country made me want to laugh and weep. It was difficult listening to her wax poetic about Lincoln, knowing he wasn’t quite the hero people thought he was. My distracting thoughts prevented me from absorbing almost everything she said, including the names of the various assassins. My experience is a situation where the problem is all me and not the author’s fault. Or maybe I should blame our most recent political history for distracting me from learning about other historical moments because I was too busy imagining how different things could be had someone assassinated 45.
    • 4/5
      Sarah is my new favorite author. Funny, quirky book about the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley.
    • 3/5
      Vowell finds herself a lot more hilarious than I do.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating story that would have been much better if she had attempted some degree of objectivity. Well worth reading.
    • 3/5
      Amusing investigations of the geography and history of the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. What is sometimes called "tidbit-ing through history", interesting stories and footnotes are added the the basic story, to make the retelling of the events more entertaining, by descriptions of plaques, statues and historic sites. Several profiles of people, such as the assassins or presidents, are snarky and entertaining. A good afternoon's read, or on a trip, or at the beach.
    • 5/5
      OMG! Thanks sis for the recommendation! I was hesitant to read this but Sarah Vowell is a GREAT storyteller. I love her facts on the presidents and her stories from her travels.
    • 3/5
      Hard to explain, but I think I probably would've loved this book 10 years ago.
    • 4/5
      I love Vowell. Who else but Violet from the Incredibles would undertake a tour of asassination sites - and make it interesting, funny and compelling? That said, she wears her liberal politics on her sleeve, so those with a more right wing opinion might be annoyed by those sections. Read around it, it's worth it.
    • 4/5
      Even if you're not particularly interested in presidential assassinations, Sarah Vowell's writes well enough to draw the reader into the lives of people in power, people who want power, and people who just want to walk where those historical figures once walked. Originally published in 2005, this book contains enough contemporary political references to feel slightly dated, but it holds up well overall.
    • 4/5
      Sarah Vowell is a nerdy history buff. Some might consider me nerdy as well, but I am far, far from a history buff. Typically the only type of history book that I can get through is one of historical fiction, where the author can get away with some embellishments while telling a good story. But I'd heard good things about Sarah Vowell, so I tried this one, in which Vowell elaborates on the assassinations of three American Presidents: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. Most everyone knows something about Lincoln's assassination, but Garfield's & McKinley's deaths are more obscure. I read this on audio (read by the author), and while Vowell's distinctive-sounding voice initially grated on my nerves, I soon came to appreciate her wit & deadpan humor, and now I can't imagine it being read by anyone but herself. Not only did I enjoy learning about these particular bits of history, but I now want to get in my car and go travel to all of the well-known and not-so-well-known locations that Vowell described in her book. I think I sincerely have a new appreciation for all of those roadside signs and plaques memorializing such moments in history -- plaques which I previously tended to glance over quickly without much thought. This particular book of Vowell's seems to be one of her best, based on other reviews, but I intend to seek out her others as well. Audio format recommended!
    • 5/5
      Really loved the enthusiasm Sarah Vowell has for finding historical trivia, oddities, and markers related to the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley -- including trips to hometowns, assassination sites, and cemeteries. Lots of humor and interesting tidbits, as well as insights looking back on these tragic murders that occurred all within several decades ... and all of which Lincoln's son, Richard Todd Lincoln was close by! Written during George W.'s war in Iraq, Vowell also expresses her displeasure with the then-current president, which I did not mind since I agree with her stance/assessment.
    • 3/5
      I enjoy Sarah Vowell so I also enjoyed this book. It is her telling of her obsession with historical, esp. presidential, assassinations. In this book she tells all about the Lincoln, Garfield, & McKinley assassinations as she "vacations" at all the historic places that tell of these events. With her sense of deadpan humor, she makes this information humorous as well as educational.
    • 2/5
      Book on CD read by the author and special guests
      I loved the premise of this nonfiction book. I have a nearly life-long fascination with murder and murderers. Vowell’s obsession is more specific to political assassination, but still, I am forever drawn to the kinds of attractions she visits … museums of medical interest, or regarding crime. This volume chronicles her visits to various sites related to the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. I also had the text version available to me (mostly to verify spellings, etc), and I have to say she does include a lot of fascinating trivia about the people involved in these cases. Even to including information about other people who were in the Ford Theatre when John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln, and their descendents.

      As for the audio … OMG … I know from her bio that she’s done voice work (notably voicing “Violet” in The Incredibles - a Pixar animated film). But she really should have hired a different, professional actor, or relied on her “guests” more. Her guests have only an occasional sentence to pronounce, and they include: Conan O’Brien, Stephen King (who plays Abraham Lincoln), Dave Eggers and Jon Stewart (among others). On the other hand, Vowell’s extremely nasal tone, plus the background music, are enough to make me run for the hills. Had I rated the audio book only, I’d give it 1 star; but I was still fascinated by the subject. She’s like that weird history teacher you had in 5th grade who was so obsessed with some detail that s/he made it come alive for you (even though you rolled your eyes and KNEW s/he was loony tunes). That focused attention gets her an extra star.
    • 4/5
      Sarah Vowell is a history buff. And not just a history buff, but one fascinated by political assassinations, specifically Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.In Assassination Vacation, Vowell takes her readers on a wry, reverent, fascinating journey to various landmarks, big and small, that somehow featured in the lives and deaths of assassinated American presidents. She searches out plaques, (sort of) climbs mountains, and tallies up every presidential assassination Robert Todd Lincoln was somehow an observer of (the final tally is all three).Along the way, she sees the musical "Assassins" (and scares off strangers with just how much she loves it), gets seasick on a boat ride to the prison where Lincoln assassination conspirators were held, discusses the idea that maybe John Wilkes Booth really did escape (and was then mummified after death, with his corpse being toured around carnivals), and visits the spot where the Oneida Community used to reside (a group marriage Biblical commune where Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, once lived).This is the kind of book you want to give to students who think history is boring. It will definitely change their minds.
    • 5/5
      What do you get if you mix American history, breeziness, humor, sarcasm, and sassiness together? If you’re lucky, you may discover Sarah Vowell’s ASSASSINATION VACATION.After watching Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, a musical about the men who killed Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John Garfield, and William McKinley, Sarah Vowell took off to learn more about the men and the victims. She traveled the US to the locations of the murders, the burial sites, and anything else she could find out about the perpetrators. Along the way, she learned about some similarities and differences among the three events. She wrote: “It’s one of the perks of assassination. In death, you get upgraded into a saint no matter how much people hated you in life.”“I am only slightly less astonished by the egotism of the assassins, the inflated self-esteem it requires to kill a president, than I am astonished by the men who run for president. These are the people who have the gall to believe they can fix us–us and our deficit, our fossil fuels, our racism, poverty, our potholes and public schools.”She writes about Dr. Samuel Mudd who treated Booth and was later called a conspirator. Was he innocent or guilty?A Missouri state senator complimented a Southern Magazine for setting the record straight and defending Confederate leaders. That man, John Ashcroft, later became the U.S. Attorney General.Charles J. Guiteau would later claim he was not responsible for Garfield’s death; Garfield’s doctors were. Technically, he was right.She elaborates on some strange coincidences. Among them: Robert Todd Lincoln was closely associated with all three events. (In German, todd means death.) Booth was physically close to Lincoln on several occasions. He was even on the podium behind him when he delivered his second inaugural address.“When I told a friend I was writing about the McKinley administration, he...asked” why anyone would want to read about that?” “Oh, I don’t know...Maybe because we seem to be reliving it.” She continues to prove that those who do not remember history are condemned to relive it: Samuel Tilden received more popular votes than Rutherford B. Hayes. In January 1877, the Republicans on the electoral commission “persuaded the Democrats to ‘elect’ Hayes by agreeing to end reconstruction. (Hard to believe that the candidate who lost the popular vote could actually become the president of the United States. Luckily, that kind of travesty never happened again.)”More turmoil erupted during the 1880 election when U.S. Grant was seeking a third term. “I’ll admit I rolled my eyes at the ideological hairsplitting, wondering how a group of people who more or less agreed with one another abut most issues could summon forth such stark animosity. Thankfully, we Americans have evolved, our hearts made larger, our minds more open, welcoming the negligible differences among our fellows with compassion and respect.”Among her tidbits of information was “Slavery...wasn’t a European import but native to American shores.” The north was also involved as it sought to get molasses and rum.“Maryland, My Maryland” was written in 1861 but was not the official state song until 1939. It includes lines including “sic semper!”, a reference to the state’s motto, “Sic semper tyrannis” the words hollered by John Wilkes Booth, calls Lincoln a despot, and refers to the North as “scum.” When he bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, Timothy McVeigh wore a T-shirt with a picture of Lincoln on the front as well as the words, “Sic semper tyrannis.” The shirt instantly became a big seller.On June 9, 1863, “Just as the pallbearers were carrying [Edwin Booth’s] coffin out the door in New York, in Washington, three floors of Ford’s Theater collapsed...It had been turned into a government office building after the Lincoln assassination. Twenty-two federal employees died.At the time Garfield ran for President, the best paid government job? New York Custom House collectors. “The Custom House collected two-thirds of the federal government’s revenue.”The employees, especially the director, were free to siphon off their share first.“The sad thing about Garfield’s eleven volumes of Sumner’s Works”is that it’s a fifteen-volume set.”McKinley felt the best thing the US could do for the Filipinos was to “educate, uplift, and Christianize them.” He ignored the fact that most were already Christian because of the Spanish missionaries who arrived in 1565 to convert them to Catholicism. What really caused the explosion on the U.S. battleship, the Maine which lead to the Spanish-American War?Vowell spent time talking with tour guides and was able to learn a lot more about her subjects than that given in the typical tour. She did this not by private interviews but by asking questions during the tours.ASSASSINATION VACATION was a delightful, informative history lesson. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in history, particularly the presidential assassinations, who doesn’t want to wade through a lot of boring, fleshless words. For those who aren’t history buffs, you’ll probably enjoy it as well for its writing style and presentation of information you didn’t think you’d care about.
    • 3/5
      Interesting and funny which is hard to do when you are covering assassinations....
    • 4/5
      If you like quirky humor and little known historical tidbits and if the idea of visiting grave sites, memorial plaques and house museums doesn't bore you witless, this is a book for you. Sarah Vowell takes us on a journey through the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley and we emerge better informed about American history and with a new perspective on the America of today. I listened to an audio performance in which Vowell's talented friends such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert play the roles of historical figures. Highly entertaining and enjoyable.
    • 2/5
      I am about two thirds of my way through this one. Borrowed this book from a friend that highly recommended it as something that he thought I would enjoy. My initial impression of the author and her writing style is she is an impudent, erudite, febrile poster child of the liberal gum chewing American teenager. She bounces all over the place in her stream of conscience style narrative and frequently throws out random trivia that has nothing to do with the subject at hand. I think she would be a hoot to travel with her random facts and very different view point.
      She does point out she gave up Christianity and religion and in its place she has adopted American patriotism.
      She does show she lacks some understanding of the differences between how culture and society in past times differed dramatically from the present. That takes a lot of immersive study to get a hold of so I don’t really hold that against her a great deal but some of her conclusions about people might have been different had she had a fuller understanding of their times. It is so tempting though to judge the past through our present mores and standards because that is what we are so used to doing.

      This was more entertainment than history though I must admit the last half was pretty interesting as she talked about several people and incidents I was not familiar with.