Booth
Ratings18
Average rating3.6
Soort-van biografie van John Wilkes Booth, de moordenaar van Abraham Lincoln. Soort-van, omdat het boek zoveel als mogelijk niet over hem gaat, maar over zijn ouders en broers en zussen.
“None of the children know that they're a secret. It will come as quite a shock. They've no cause for suspicion. Much like the secret cabin, everyone they know knows they're here.”
Zijn vader was een gevierd (maar wel erg vaak stomdronken) Shakespeare acteur, en hijzelf en zijn broers komen uiteindelijk ook allemaal op het toneel terecht.
“June has started to dream of an acting career in Philadelphia, where he knows some of the company and has been promised his chance. This is as much against his father's wishes as his father's own acting career was against his father's wishes. There are other family traditions that June will eventually carry on as well, but he doesn't know what they are yet.”
Vader is nogal wispelturig en houdt er diverse vreemde ideeën op na, al is hij ook steeds langere tijd onderweg op tournee (soms begeleidt door een van zijn zoons om het van de drank af te houden).
“Father soon cheers up again, complimenting Rosalie on the leeks and potatoes, which she did not cook, Mother on the fish. Yes, fish! Suddenly Father, who once thought it murder to eat an oyster, has decided they should all be eating fish. None of the children like fish, so this is nothing to celebrate. Plus Rosalie has told Edwin how Father once said that he'd killed Mary Ann and Elizabeth by eating meat, so Edwin wonders which of them is being put at risk this time on account of a cod he doesn't even want.”
Fowler schrijft fijn, met vaak erg aangename kleine droge uitsmijters aan het eind van een alinea of hoofdstuk.
“Edwin's horse, bought for one dollar and seventy-five cents—a bony white mare unimpressed with her own stardom—may well be Edwin's undoing. So far she's foiled his every vision by refusing to move her feet. If this had been the horse Richard sold his kingdom for, he would've lost England anyway.”
De geschiedenis van de familie wordt afgewisseld met kleinere hoofdstukjes waarin Lincoln een beetje gevolgd wordt, inclusief het verloop van de burgeroorlog. Met enige regelmaat tijdens het lezen van het boek bekruipt toch het idee dat de geschiedenis in Amerika zich aan het herhalen lijkt. Anders, maar toch een hoop overeenkomsten...
I made it to 50% before throwing in the towel. It was just “meh” and I found myself being bored and my mind wandering while listening to it. I'm usually a fan of historical fiction, but at 50% I felt like I'd learned all I needed to about the Booth family.
There are a couple times I have read a book that tells us about the family of a famous historical character. This is a book like that. We see life from the perspective of various Booth children except for John. We see the struggles they all had to live up to a name and not show that the various scandals affected them. Each Booth child has their own big foible that threatens to bring them down, but they still work so hard to be there for the family. Then John makes history and they are all in their own way shattered. I enjoyed listening to the family drama and heartbreak because it humanized these historical figures.
A success on such a large scale that it's difficult for me to write about. Check it out!
When I first saw the cover of this book, I wondered why a book about John Wilkes Booth would don imagery of flowers and birds. I never thought much of the name ‘Booth' past John Wilkes. I never questioned where he came from. It wasn't until I was over halfway through the book that it occurred to me that the Booth Theatre in New York is named for Edwin Booth, let alone the two had any relation. Even though this is a fictionalized take on the Booth Family, I learned a great deal.
I'm a sucker for slower-paced, character-driven historical fiction like this. The story mostly centers on Rosalie, Edwin, and Asia. They all have distinct personalities and perspectives that make the story rich from start to finish. The writing is lovely and sad rolled into one. I liked Rosalie the best with Edwin not too far behind. Lincoln is also inserted throughout the story, though it is usually brief. It adds a good build-up to his fate.
I do wish that authors would refrain from inserting modern-day politics at the end of books — especially in fiction which this book ultimately is. I've complained about this in too many book reviews these past two years and I'm weary of it. I'm sure I'm not only speaking for myself when I say that I read to escape current events. Nothing spoils a book I so thoroughly enjoy quicker than a politically charged author's note whether I agree with what's being said or not. I will not deduct a star from this as at least the story itself remained intact, but I can only wish that authors would consider the type of alienation these messages bring on. In my experience, it almost always ends up being hypocritical to the content.
