Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (Book of the Month)

[lovejuice]

April is Benny's selection, and it's our first non-fiction.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060518499.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

from amazon.

"In the early days of April 1865, with the bloody war to preserve the union finished, Swanson tells us, Abraham Lincoln was "jubilant." Elsewhere in Washington, the other player in the coming drama of the president's assassination was miserable. Hearing Lincoln's April 10 victory speech, famed actor and Confederate die-hard John Wilkes Booth turned to a friend and remarked with seething hatred, "That means nigger citizenship. Now, by God, I'll put him through." On April 14, Booth did just that. With great power, passion and at a thrilling, breakneck pace, Swanson (Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution) conjures up an exhausted yet jubilant nation ruptured by grief, stunned by tragedy and hell-bent on revenge. For 12 days, assisted by family and some women smitten by his legendary physical beauty, Booth relied on smarts, stealth and luck to elude the best detectives, military officers and local police the federal government could muster. Taking the reader into the action, the story is shot through with breathless, vivid, even gory detail. With a deft, probing style and no small amount of swagger, Swanson, a member of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, has crafted pure narrative pleasure, sure to satisfy the casual reader and Civil War aficionado alike."

sound interesting!

and we have an open slot for may.

[D_Davis]

This sounds pretty cool.

I might look into it.

[Benny Profane]

Historical crime is becoming one of my new favorite genres. Everyone I know who's read this has flat-out loved it. Hope y'all like it, I'm very much looking forward to it.

Only 80 more pages of Mason & Dixon!

[Kurosawa Fan]

Historical crime is becoming one of my new favorite genres. Everyone I know who's read this has flat-out loved it. Hope y'all like it, I'm very much looking forward to it.

Only 80 more pages of Mason & Dixon!

Wow. I almost bought this twice at B&N. It was on a sale table. Hopefully it's still there. I should be up for this one.

[Sven]

Wow. I almost bought this twice at B&N. It was on a sale table. Hopefully it's still there. I should be up for this one.

I believe it still is. I think that sale (buy 2 featured HarperCollins books, get the third free) goes 'til the 2nd of April. [/insider information]

[Benny Profane]

I believe it still is. I think that sale (buy 2 featured HarperCollins books, get the third free) goes 'til the 2nd of April. [/insider information]

Yep, that's how I got this one. Bought it along with a book about Magellan called Over the Edge of the World and Native Son by Richard Wright.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I believe it still is. I think that sale (buy 2 featured HarperCollins books, get the third free) goes 'til the 2nd of April. [/insider information]

Sweet. You need to start a thread with all the inside info at B&N. I'd subscribe. In spirit anyway.

[Sven]

Yep, that's how I got this one. Bought it along with a book about Magellan called Over the Edge of the World and Native Son by Richard Wright.

I only utilized the similar Random House sale to get Fast Food Nation, Don't Know Much About History, and Zinn's People's History of the United States, but I've been tempted to buy many other things on numerous occasions, this Lincoln book included.

[Sycophant]

I've been meaning to read this for a while now. I'll see if I get around to picking up a copy.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I bought this tonight. I'll read it as soon as I'm finished with Kavalier and Klay, which should be in the next few days.

[megladon8]

Very cool selection.

Not sure I'll get around to it for the book club, but I have marked it down on my list.

[Benny Profane]

Well, the first 60 pages are pretty fucking intense. Wow! This is gonna be a quick read.

[Kurosawa Fan]

95 pages in and progressing nicely.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Halfway through and I'm enthralled.

[Benny Profane]

Halfway through and I'm enthralled.

Seriously. This book friggin rules.

On page 235.

[Benny Profane]

Finished it this morning. Thoughts to come later.

[megladon8]

Benny, you're making me want to make an Amazon purchase :)

[ledfloyd]

Why am I just now seeing this thread? This is the first book that has both looked interesting to me and been at my library. Usually it's one or the other. I'll be getting this tomorrow.

[Ezee E]

I also broke down and bought it. In the middle of the first chapter at work, and I must find a way to isolate myself and continue.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Finished it this morning. Thoughts to come later.

I finished it yesterday as well. I'm not one for reviewing anymore, so I'll just post a few quick thoughts. I loved the book. Loved it. It created an amazing amount of tension for a story in which I already knew the ending. I have a few minor complaints, and I stress "minor". I thought Swanson could be a tad melodramatic in his writing at times. A few select moments felt like the type of narration you would hear in a Discovery Channel show, right before it cuts to commercial. The book was suspenseful enough without trying to force it.

Also, and this would be the biggest minor complaint, I didn't care for the end of his epilogue. Outside of the 'Where are they now?' posthumous sections, his editorializing on our country's forgiveness of Booth, and the the restoration of the Ford Theater, were way off base. If we've forgiven Booth, which I'm not sure I believe we have, it's because we've had 150 years to do so. He compares it to having a banner up in Dallas of Oswald, and says how inappropriate that would be. Give it another hundred years, when folks want to see the path that Kennedy's car took, and I don't think hanging banners on lightposts with Oswald's portrait would be deemed very inappropriate. Also, as someone who has been to the Ford Theater, I don't think it stands as a monument to Booth so much as a monument to an important moment in our history.

Either way, these are very minor complaints, and didn't affect my enjoyment of the book at all. This was the best Book of the Month I've read, considering I'd only read my own selection, which ended up sucking.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Dammit, I can't believe I keep forgetting to mention the picture of Swanson on the back of the novel. If that isn't the creepiest impression of a pedophile, I don't know what is. How did Swanson okay that picture?

[Ezee E]

Yeah, the author picture is horrible. But I think they all are typically.

I'm about 100 pages in, and just want to keep reading it, but other things get in the way.

For some reason, the narration in my head sounds like the narrator from Assassination of Jesse James...

[lovejuice]

:| still waiting for my copy from amazon.

[D_Davis]

This was the best Book of the Month I've read, considering I'd only read my own selection, which ended up sucking.

Now THAT is a ringing endorsement!

:)

[Kurosawa Fan]

Now THAT is a ringing endorsement!

:)

:lol:

I do what I can.

[ledfloyd]

For some reason, the narration in my head sounds like the narrator from Assassination of Jesse James...
Yes! I keep picturing it as shot by Roger Deakins too.

I'm about 170 pages in. I couldn't put this down and go to sleep last night.

[Benny Profane]

I finished it yesterday as well. I'm not one for reviewing anymore, so I'll just post a few quick thoughts. I loved the book. Loved it. It created an amazing amount of tension for a story in which I already knew the ending. I have a few minor complaints, and I stress "minor". I thought Swanson could be a tad melodramatic in his writing at times. A few select moments felt like the type of narration you would hear in a Discovery Channel show, right before it cuts to commercial. The book was suspenseful enough without trying to force it.

I'm not one for reviewing things anymore, either, so I'll work off what you've already written and add some color here and there.

I agree wholeheartedly that the narrative generates incredible suspense. While I knew going in that Booth assassinated Lincoln, and judging from the title that he would be caught in 12 days, I did not know, for example, that there were co-conspirators who had plotted an attempt on both Seward's and Johnson's life, so those sections were quite gripping. Nor did I know anything about Booth's escape route or who helped him along the way. So while I knew the end result, I did not know how it happened, and for that reason. combined with Swanson's expert storytelling, the suspense was overpowering.

Swanson does an excellent job at intertwining the progress (or stagnation) of Booth, the manhunt, and the actions at central command in Washington. He picks up one thread of the story, adds to it, then picks up another thread, adds to it, etc., until everything is caught up to speed, and then adds some more length to each thread, repeating the process. You can never learn everything there is to learn about history, but I feel like for those 12 days in time, I have it down. I felt as if Swanson was not working in a library doing research to gather all this information; he was actually there, and it made me feel like I was witnessing history as well. With all the names associated with the manhunt, I thought it would be hard to keep track of who was who, but instead I found it fairly easy, another testament to Swanson. That, and I read it pretty damn fast (for me, at least).

I did not notice the melodrama of which you speak, and for the most part I observed that Swanson's "voice" stayed out of the way most of the time, until the epilogue, except for a few parts where he clearly speculated what Booth might have been thinking (such as in the pine thicket). Using the writings of the key players helped in this regard. Some of them were fantastic writers themselves!


Also, and this would be the biggest minor complaint, I didn't care for the end of his epilogue. Outside of the 'Where are they now?' posthumous sections, his editorializing on our country's forgiveness of Booth, and the the restoration of the Ford Theater, were way off base. If we've forgiven Booth, which I'm not sure I believe we have, it's because we've had 150 years to do so. He compares it to having a banner up in Dallas of Oswald, and says how inappropriate that would be. Give it another hundred years, when folks want to see the path that Kennedy's car took, and I don't think hanging banners on lightposts with Oswald's portrait would be deemed very inappropriate. Also, as someone who has been to the Ford Theater, I don't think it stands as a monument to Booth so much as a monument to an important moment in our history.

So to me it sounds like you are agreeing with Swanson, because I thought he clearly was trying to say that due to the time elapsed since Lincoln's assassination, the gen pop has come to see Booth as an American icon, forever intertwined with Lincoln. And if Booth had not done what he did, perhaps Lincoln would not be the martyr that he remains today. In an indirect way, the positivity felt towards Lincoln was a result of Booth's evil scheme. If you take all the positive aspects of the memory of Lincoln, and weigh them against Booth's crime, it is interesting to consider the net result. I think this is what Swanson is getting at. And I don't believe he actually said that Ford's theatre was a monument to Booth, he was just raising the question for discussion. Not having been there myself, I can't comment on it. Anyway, I'm glad these are minor issues.




Either way, these are very minor complaints, and didn't affect my enjoyment of the book at all. This was the best Book of the Month I've read, considering I'd only read my own selection, which ended up sucking.

I'm glad you liked it and that it seems like a lot more people will read it.

"Useless, useless."

[Kurosawa Fan]

It seemed as though Swanson was in a small way condemning the forgiveness we've given Booth. He doesn't just say that he's forever linked with Lincoln, and is an icon, he says that we seem to view him as an anti-hero, romantic and tragic.

I just reread the segment, and I guess he isn't really condemning our forgiveness, it just rubs me the wrong way that he feels the American public looks at Booth as any type of hero, or that we see his act as romantic in any way. The passage of time has lessened the vileness of his acts, but it doesn't forgive what he did and it doesn't make him romantic in any sense. I guess I disagree with him that we've forgiven Booth.

[Benny Profane]

I just reread the segment, and I guess he isn't really condemning our forgiveness, it just rubs me the wrong way that he feels the American public looks at Booth as any type of hero, or that we see his act as romantic in any way. The passage of time has lessened the vileness of his acts, but it doesn't forgive what he did and it doesn't make him romantic in any sense. I guess I disagree with him that we've forgiven Booth.

Is this something you ever thought of prior to reading the book? I'm only asking because I'd never pondered it before, and I'm far from an expert on the topic, so if Swanson says it's possible we've romanticized Booth, then I'd have no choice but to strongly consider his opinion based on the breadth of his knowledge.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Is this something you ever thought of prior to reading the book? I'm only asking because I'd never pondered it before, and I'm far from an expert on the topic, so if Swanson says it's possible we've romanticized Booth, then I'd have no choice but to strongly consider his opinion based on the breadth of his knowledge.

No. But when he says 'we', I assume I'm involved, and everyone I know. I don't feel like the assassination of Lincoln is a romantic event in our history, and I'm not sure I know anyone who feels that way. Not saying it isn't so, but from my point of view it's an odd opinion, and one that doesn't seem like it would be the majority. My wife is a history buff (she minored in it in college I believe), and she disagrees with that assumption as well.

[Benny Profane]

No. But when he says 'we', I assume I'm involved, and everyone I know. I don't feel like the assassination of Lincoln is a romantic event in our history, and I'm not sure I know anyone who feels that way. Not saying it isn't so, but from my point of view it's an odd opinion, and one that doesn't seem like it would be the majority. My wife is a history buff (she minored in it in college I believe), and she disagrees with that assumption as well.

I think you're taking it a bit too literally, but I see what you're saying. Again, I don't think it's Swanson's stance on the issue, he was just commenting on how public opinion can change over time, and used some examples to support his case with regards to Lincoln and Booth.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Perhaps. Either way it was a fantastic book. Like you, I didn't know the details of the conspiracy or of how Booth was captured and what took place once they found him, so the book was all the more exciting because of that. My wife is going to read it soon, but she pretty much knows the whole story already. I'll be interested to see her reaction compared to mine.

[lovejuice]

:evil: damn amazon! if i have to miss this month, i'll be real pissed.

[ledfloyd]

I just finished it. It was really good. More later?

[megladon8]

Did I mention this arrived in the mail the other day?

I'm really looking forward to cracking it open in a few days when school officially ends for the year.

[lovejuice]

that's it! i'm going to borrow the book from the library. amazon, don't ever think this will go unpunished.

[lovejuice]

a good read, though to be honest i'm not as infatuated as you guys. perhaps due to my lack of background and, honestly, interest in american history. gotta admit swanson did a fine job narrating the event, making it full of suspense, while keeping it to the source as much.

[Ezee E]

Tom Fontana and David Simon (The Wire/Generation Kill/Oz) are planning to do a HBO Miniseries of this.

::insert Spinal's "IT ROCKS!!!!" dude::

Variety Article (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992244.html?categoryid=1 4&cs=1)

[Kurosawa Fan]

Awesome. :cool:

I miss lovejuice. :sad:

[Winston*]

I miss lovejuice. :sad:

Srsly. Easily one of the all time great Match Cutters.