Only Sarah

Only Sarah Vowell could convince a publisher that what they needed was a book about her obsession with the 3 assassinated presidents from a long-ago era. Sarah spends her free time visiting any place related to Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley and their assassins. And these stories are quite amusing, particularly because she doesn't drive, and therefor must convince her family and quickly dwindling network of friends to go to these places. Unfortunately, as she writes the book she has trouble incorporating the historical education she needs to give the reader into the anecdotes, and ends up giving a lecture, followed by the anecdote. And on occasion goes into a diatribe about current political situations. Which in it's entirety leaves the book too disjointed, and occasionally annoying. I also wonder if she isn't a victim of her own success, as that now her stories are reaching a much larger audience she feels compelled to protect her friends and family, and ends up leaving lots of the interesting parts of the stories out. Nevertheless, I learned a great deal, and feel quite an affinity for Sarah and her interesting obsession.

5/10