May 5th, 2009
The Wordy Shipmates
The Wordy Shipmates
by Sarah Vowell
If you are one of those 28% who thought George W. Bush was doing a great job as president then you will probably hate this book. That isn’t to say that the rest of you will love this book. Beyond her political quips, there is a style to the writing of Sarah Vowell that is unmistakable and which you will either love or hate. She frequently wanders off topic with jokes about “Happy Days” or her nephew Owen. But if you enjoyed her other books and like her style then you will be in for a treat.
But first, this book is not about the Pilgrims or Thanksgiving. She skips ahead to after the Pilgrims have landed and discusses the other Puritans who landed north of Plymouth Rock and settled in Boston and Salem. In fact, what she is really aiming to discuss is the writing and experiences of John Winthrop, one of the key Puritans, the one who wrote about “the city on the hill” that Ronald Reagan so misunderstood. The book is about the struggles of Winthrop to control Massachusetts and his religious colony when faced with men like Roger Williams who found most of the Puritans not pure enough but still believed that the state had no business interfering in religious beliefs. Williams founded Rhode Island (after being kicked out of Massachusetts by Winthrop) on the basis of separation of Church and State at a time when disagreements about the proper indenting in the Bible could lead to wars. And if your knowledge of Anne Hutchinson doesn’t go beyond her river or parkway in the Bronx, you will be fascinated by her story.
Ms. Vowell’s writing style keeps the book moving, although it does drag in parts, and we end up with a history lesson that could have been quite dull in other hands. Like “Assassination Vacation” we end up learning a lot more than we though we would have when we started without feeling that we have been force fed a history lesson. As I said earlier, if you enjoy the writing style of Ms. Vowell, then I think you will enjoy this book.
