Author : Sarah Vowell
Narrator : Various
Simon & Schuster
Length : 7 hours
Type : Travel American Humor
Download Price : $15.95
Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other--a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.
From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue--it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and--the author's favorite--historical tourism.
Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are lighter diversions into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.
IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:
Conan O'Brien Robert Todd Lincoln Eric Bogosian John Wilkes Booth Stephen King President Abraham Lincoln Dave Eggers Mike Ryan Catherine Keener Gretchen Worden Jon Stewart President James A. Garfield Tony Kushner John Humphrey Noyes Brad Bird Charles Guiteau & Emma Goldman Daniel Handler President William McKinley Greg Giraldo President Theodore Roosevelt David Rakoff Leon Czolgosz
About the Author:
Sarah Vowell is a contributing editor for public radio's This American Life and has written for Time, Esquire, GQ, Spin, Salon, McSweeneys, The Village Voice, and the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Radio On, Take the Cannoli, and The Partly Cloudy Patriot. She lives in New York City.
Other titles you may be interested in
Author : Christopher Moore
Narrator : Tony Roberts
Harper Collins US
Length : 6 hours
Type : Comedy Fiction
Download Price : $19.95
Move over, Charles Dickens - it's Christopher Moore time. More... |
Author : Various
Narrator : Full Cast Production
BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Length : 2 hours
Type : Modern Classics Humor British Radio Shows
Download Price : $14.99
Goon but not forgotten. From 1952 to 1960 the Goons ruled the airwaves, the most celebrated and influential clowns in the history of radio. More... |
Author : Jerry Robbins
Narrator : Colonial Radio Theatre
Colonial Radio Theatre On The Air
Length : 30 minutes
Type : Humor Radio Shows American
Download Price : $1.50
Dibble and Jake help Rita with a flapjack festival. More... |
Author : Various
Narrator : Full Cast Performance
BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Length : 2 hours
Type : Modern Classics Humor British Radio Shows
Download Price : $14.99
Four episodes of classic Goonery! More... |
Author : Not Known
Narrator : Full Cast Production
Colonial Radio Theatre On The Air
Length : 25 minutes
Type : Humor Radio Shows American
Download Price : $1.50
Dibble returns for a third season of shows at the Mayham Town Hall Theatre! More... |
|