The Wordy Shipmates
by Sarah Vowell
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Book Reviews of The Wordy Shipmates
Book Review: Winthrop, Williams and wit
Summary: 4 Stars
Sarah Vowell must really want you to read her new book in one gulp....there are no chapter delineations, so sit back and enjoy "The Wordy Shipmates." For those who have read her previous books, her comments on history have a uniquely Vowell-touch.
The Puritans, Vowell admits, have had a pretty rough historical consideration over time and she admits to having a soft spot for them. This is largely a book about the early New England settlers, of course, with John Winthrop and Roger Williams getting the most play. The rogue cast continues with John Cotton, Anne Hutchinson and some other minor additions. Bill Maher would have fun with this group, too....it's sort of a seventeenth century "Religulous", often meeting up with "Spamalot" along the way. Calvinists though many of them were, their pre-ordained divination might have come as quite a shock as they hounded Indians in Connecticut, escaped to Rhode Island and quibbled in Massachusetts. The author lets not a wretched soul off the hook.
One can imagine Sarah Vowell teaching history studies with a modern-day lingo and interpretation so acute that hers might be the most fascinating history course one ever undertakes... where her final exams would be oral but she would do more of the talking. While "Wordy Shipmates" tends to drift sometimes in its narrative as far as the breakaway theologians and teachers of the day, Vowell, nonetheless, offers up a book that is never, well, puritanical. It is informative, witty, and yes....read it in one sitting.
Book Review: A little-- well-- wordy...
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I love Sarah Vowell's books. She is an absolute master at examining a historical subject, relating it to the world we live in, and inserting her personal foibles to it, all in a narrative that moves so smoothly and quickly that you're sometimes surprised that you've read the whole book at a sitting. That's what she attempts to do here, but she doesn't quite pull it off this time.
Don't misunderstand me; this isn't at all a bad book. In fact, it's fascinating. It is jam-packed with fascinating information about the Massachusetts Puritans and the religious, social, and historical context of their settlement. Vowell weaves comments about her family background, education, travels, and hopes and fears into the narrative, just as she usually does.
When Vowell's writing works best, it's driven by her quirkiness and her ability to veer off on what seems to be a tangent, then bring everything together in the end. She does that here, but just not as well as in her other books. Perhaps the subject just isn't as susceptible to the Vowell treatment as the subjects of her other books.
I actually enjoyed this book, and I recommend it highly. However, it's just not as good as her other books made me expect it to be. Well worth reading, though.
Book Review: Please just calm down, Sarah
Summary: 2 Stars
Although I politically disagree with her, I really enjoy Sarah Vowell's books. She is a good writer, and I admire her ability to pull seemingly disparate subjects together into an illuminating whole. However, no matter how much I tried, I could not make myself enjoy this book. I learned a few things, but one of those things is how annoying a really hysterical opposing political voice can be. I don't have any illusions that America is perfect and everything we do is right, but we're certainly not the hideous criminal mess that she seems to think we are. The breaking point for me came with her attempt to compare America right now with the Soviet Union in the height of the purges ("I have heard the screams") Really Sarah? Really. Yes, that's fair, because I remember when the staff members of NPR and the Village Voice and every other Republican-hating media group got hauled away in the night and taken to a gulag...Oh, except for that never happened. And I remember when the leaders of the Democratic Party disappeared...Oh, except for that never happened either.
I understand the desire for a real drama, the sense that you are manning the barricades against evil, but really now. It just comes across like a hysterical child lying on the ground screaming and kicking. I just desparately hope once Barack Obama is in the White House she can just calm down and get back to writing rational thought-based books once again.
Book Review: Happy Days
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoyed this book from several perspectives. First and foremost I enjoy anything that gives solid analysis to the Boston - Salem Puritans. And I thought Vowell did that. She did some significant research here to anchor the work in the words of the wordy shipmates. On this same note I enjoyed the way Sarah showed how the lives and works of Winthrop, William and Hutchinson impact the periods between then and now. I wish she'd given a little more time to Endicott....and I disagree with her spelling of his name. He was a real force to be reckoned with, but she clearly capture his essence.
The work is also timely given our current political and economic climate.
Another thing I picked up on and is very personal to me, it the spiritual journey component. I was very glad to get some one elses perspective on the spiritual life these people were wrestling with, right or wrong. Who is anyone to say.
Sarah clearly has a twisted sense of humor and I wish she would have taken that up another notch or two, but then who knows what the editors did to that.
Easily can recommend this book to any students of New England history or anyone interested in religious fanatics.
I love the Puritans. They probably would not have accepted me as I am for sure. But I am a direct descendant of them...although my ancestors fled the community at first chance.
Book Review: Snark, snark, snark and more snark
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Sarah Vowell's very well written and clearly well researched book on the thoughts and deeds of the real Puritans who founded Boston and provided some of the foundation for our country is overwhelmed with snark. Her passion and knowledge of the topic shines through on every page, but I felt completely overwhelmed by her incredible displays of modern, urban, hipness and snark. I enjoyed the parts of the book where she focused on the history of the building of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It's a fascinating story. Unfortunately it's almost buried in Sarah Vowell's snark. Did I mention it was snarky? She also put her own, more than a little bit left of center, political views and agenda ahead of the history.
So it's hip, snarky and leftist, but also quite informative and entertaining. If it hadn't been informative and entertaining, I would have been forced to give it a single star. It's a shame that she couldn't have written in a little less snarky a manner. I think her knowledge and passion would have made this a book worth reading for a long time to come. As it is, the extreme hip attitude will age the book as quickly as the latest hip fashions age.