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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Entertaining take on the famous duel and the life surrounding it - wonderful twist on the last page.
I was extremely conflicted between 4 and 5 stars (since I can't rate it 4.5 on goodreads). Ultimately, though, since I enjoyed the novel so much, even though there were issues of plot (or lack thereof), I'm going to give it 5 stars. Ironically, I read this book as an "intimidating read" in the book junkie trials because I was intimidated by historical fiction, though I have loved other novels by Gore Vidal. Obviously, I should not have been intimidated as the writing carried the day as I was swept back into the age of the Founding Fathers.
The main first-person narrator is one of the only fictional characters in the novel, young Charlie Schuyler, who in 1833 is aging Aaron Burr's confident and assistant. Charlie convinces Burr to tell him his life story, and there are flashbacks from Burr's POV (as memorialized by Charlie) from the revolutionary war through his duel with Alexander Hamilton to charges of treason by President Thomas Jefferson. Since most of the history is from Burr's perspective, General Washington is painted as a puffed-up, pompous, puritanical, incompetent and Thomas Jefferson as a hypocritical, craven schemer. From Andrew Jackson to Davey Crockett, we are treated to a series of historical facts giving a new perspective to the Founding Fathers, far afield from what was read in history. If you think the United States of America was founded by and started off as being led by iconic paragons of virtue, think again!
The downside is that the plot suffers from being bifurcated between the "modern" story of Charlie and Burr and Burr's reminiscences of his political younger days. I did not find Charlie a likable character; indeed, I disliked him the more and more his story unfolded. The main driver of this storyline was Charlie secretly working to find out of Martin Van Buren was Aaron Burr's illegitimately son, which I didn't know about and didn't really care about. The "surprise" ending was extremely satisfying, however; just Charlie's story seemed to drag when I was much more interested in Aaron Burr's story. Ultimately, however, I have never had history come alive like this and thus have no problem with 5 stars.
The main first-person narrator is one of the only fictional characters in the novel, young Charlie Schuyler, who in 1833 is aging Aaron Burr's confident and assistant. Charlie convinces Burr to tell him his life story, and there are flashbacks from Burr's POV (as memorialized by Charlie) from the revolutionary war through his duel with Alexander Hamilton to charges of treason by President Thomas Jefferson. Since most of the history is from Burr's perspective, General Washington is painted as a puffed-up, pompous, puritanical, incompetent and Thomas Jefferson as a hypocritical, craven schemer. From Andrew Jackson to Davey Crockett, we are treated to a series of historical facts giving a new perspective to the Founding Fathers, far afield from what was read in history. If you think the United States of America was founded by and started off as being led by iconic paragons of virtue, think again!
The downside is that the plot suffers from being bifurcated between the "modern" story of Charlie and Burr and Burr's reminiscences of his political younger days. I did not find Charlie a likable character; indeed, I disliked him the more and more his story unfolded. The main driver of this storyline was Charlie secretly working to find out of Martin Van Buren was Aaron Burr's illegitimately son, which I didn't know about and didn't really care about. The "surprise" ending was extremely satisfying, however; just Charlie's story seemed to drag when I was much more interested in Aaron Burr's story. Ultimately, however, I have never had history come alive like this and thus have no problem with 5 stars.
I have always been so BORED by US history but now I realize I was only bored by how it is presented in American high school history class. I mean, just look at the Washington perched on the 1$ bill, looking himself bored as all get out. The only real story I can summon about him readily is the cherry tree one about "I cannot tell a lie", which is a big yawn, and furthermore now that I am thinking of it as an adult I am even more suspicious as I know of no political leader or any type of leader really that doesn't lean on the occasional convenient lie. But Vidal's US history is delightfully irreverent. Suddenly Washington becomes a man with womanly hips who didn't manage to win a single battle yet whose dull complacency managed a nation of these divided colonies to make.
I think one problem with the traditional lens of US history is that we tend as a nation to look back at the course of our history as predetermined, an inevitable march towards the beacon of democracy. Vidal understands that this is not at all the case, and that the early founders weren't at all convinced even that the states should remain united. Democracy as we understand it today was never their goal, either- only a tiny percentage of the male population even had the right to vote at all. The Virginia junto, as Burr calls it, had goals vastly different than those of New Englanders, or of the wild frontiersmen. The Constitution is in the end a vague document that can be and is twisted in many different ways to mean many different things, and the process of this twisting was at time vicious.
But I jumped too quickly into the larger themes. This book is, at heart, a character study of Aaron Burr, a guy up there with Benedict Arnold as one of the Voldemorts of the early Union. The only time I really thought about Burr before was on a food tour in NYC I went on with some visitors, where the tour guide casually pointed out where Hamilton and Burr had challenged each other to a duel. I had never realized before that a sitting vice president had literally dueled to the death with Alexander Hamilton. I mean, come on, what a crazy place this newfledged US nation was. I dunno if Burr was really this clever and fascinating in real life, but man was it delightful to enjoy his cutting wit in this book. I would even call it laugh out loud at certain points.
Highlights:
-any time Burr went on a tear about how awful Jefferson was
-Washington's "womanly hips"
-entertaining escapades with women, a subplot that continued until his divorce on his day of death
-haunting description of the duel with Hamilton
-surprise twist ending!
I think one problem with the traditional lens of US history is that we tend as a nation to look back at the course of our history as predetermined, an inevitable march towards the beacon of democracy. Vidal understands that this is not at all the case, and that the early founders weren't at all convinced even that the states should remain united. Democracy as we understand it today was never their goal, either- only a tiny percentage of the male population even had the right to vote at all. The Virginia junto, as Burr calls it, had goals vastly different than those of New Englanders, or of the wild frontiersmen. The Constitution is in the end a vague document that can be and is twisted in many different ways to mean many different things, and the process of this twisting was at time vicious.
But I jumped too quickly into the larger themes. This book is, at heart, a character study of Aaron Burr, a guy up there with Benedict Arnold as one of the Voldemorts of the early Union. The only time I really thought about Burr before was on a food tour in NYC I went on with some visitors, where the tour guide casually pointed out where Hamilton and Burr had challenged each other to a duel. I had never realized before that a sitting vice president had literally dueled to the death with Alexander Hamilton. I mean, come on, what a crazy place this newfledged US nation was. I dunno if Burr was really this clever and fascinating in real life, but man was it delightful to enjoy his cutting wit in this book. I would even call it laugh out loud at certain points.
Highlights:
-any time Burr went on a tear about how awful Jefferson was
-Washington's "womanly hips"
-entertaining escapades with women, a subplot that continued until his divorce on his day of death
-haunting description of the duel with Hamilton
-surprise twist ending!
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There are books that come along at the right time. And then there are books you're not ready for. Gore Vidal's Burr is the type of book I should've read during college. But it's too bad that I held a silly prejudice against historical fiction.
Burr is Vidal at his best: witty, always charming, with a relentless savage view of the immortals of the American Revolution and afterwards.
Burr is Vidal at his best: witty, always charming, with a relentless savage view of the immortals of the American Revolution and afterwards.