Catherine S. Sweet

A good read on many counts., Jun 2 2009

Vowell's book is part travel literature, part history, and no small part macabre fascination on the part of the author. It is very very very reflexive, so Vowell rarely extricates her voice from her research. Happily, her voice is extremely funny and dry, which is perhaps just the right voice with which to be writing this book.

Her research takes her on direct and digressive travels in America, to all and sundry people, places, and things related to three Presidential assasinations; those of Lincoln, McKinley, and Garfield. As a Canadian, I'd never really known anything at all about these men's deaths, except quite perfunctory Lincoln history. There was no NEED for me to know,… Read more