Devotees of the Public Radio International program This American Life will already be familiar with Sarah Vowell, a long time contributor whose journalistic audio essays, her unique blend of nasal sarcasm and compelling earnestness especially with regard to politics, patriotism, and historical matters, are show staples.
"I am a history buff," admits Vowell. "I am one 1-800 number away from ordering the Time/Life World War II Series off the TV. I have set my alarm so I would not miss a C-SPAN morning live remote from the house of the Revolutionary War pamphleteer, Thomas Payne. I spent my 30th birthday at Grant's tomb."
"I am a history buff," admits Vowell. "I am one 1-800 number away from ordering the Time/Life World War II Series off the TV. I have set my alarm so I would not miss a C-SPAN morning live remote from the house of the Revolutionary War pamphleteer, Thomas Payne. I spent my 30th birthday at Grant's tomb."
In these 19 essays, Vowell recalls some of her many visits to historical sites. When a Civil War reenactor in a Confederate uniform is unable to tell Vowell which direction is South, she admonishes him, "Dude, you're from there!" She spends her vacations this way, seeking out the legend of Teddy Roosevelt in North Dakota, the Salem witch burnings in Massachusetts, and a boxed lunch 750 feet below the Earth's surface in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns.
History and national identity are not the only topics herein. Vowell speaks of her childhood, of being a twin; she explores what it is about Tom Cruise that makes her nervous; and she so vividly recalls her working relationship with famed antiquarian map dealer, Graham Arader, that I was moved to research the man further on the web. In "The Nerd Voice" she presents a lengthy diatribe on the nature of nerdom and why our country needs a nerd at the helm, rather than a jock.
History and national identity are not the only topics herein. Vowell speaks of her childhood, of being a twin; she explores what it is about Tom Cruise that makes her nervous; and she so vividly recalls her working relationship with famed antiquarian map dealer, Graham Arader, that I was moved to research the man further on the web. In "The Nerd Voice" she presents a lengthy diatribe on the nature of nerdom and why our country needs a nerd at the helm, rather than a jock.
Vowell exudes the sort of funniness that she ascribes to her heroes, "a self-deprecating, Charlie Brown sense of humor." She is simultaneously hilarious and edifying. I listened to The Partly Cloudy Patriot in audio book form, which I believe is the optimal form in which to consume Vowell's work and not just because Stephen Colbert, Conan O'Brien, and Michael Chabon appear as the voices of Al Gore, Abraham Lincoln, and Walt Whitman, respectively. The Partly Cloudy Patriot is ideal as an audio book because Vowell, a writer, actor, sometimes columnist, is first and foremost a story-teller ("The more history I learn, the more the world fills up with stories."), and her stories compel not only in their writing but in their telling.
This book was rented from www.simplyaudiobooks.com.
This book was rented from www.simplyaudiobooks.com.
