I Am Abraham: A Novel of Lincoln and the Civil War

by Jerome Charyn

Overview

Jerome Charyn’s “daring” and “memorable” (The New Yorker) historical novel renders the inner life of our sixteenth president like never before.

This unforgettable portrait of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War effortlessly mixes humor with Shakespearean-like tragedy to create an achingly human portrait of the sixteenth president. Charyn conducts an orchestra of historical figures and fictional extras centered around a profoundly moral but troubled commander in chief whose relationship with his Ophelia-like wife and his sons—Robert, Willie, and Tad—is explored with penetrating psychological insight and the utmost compassion. Seized by melancholy and imbued with an unfaltering sense of human worth, Charyn’s President Lincoln comes to vibrant, three-dimensional life in a haunting portrait we have rarely seen in historical fiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631490026
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	02/09/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 4.20(d)

About the Author

“One of the most important writers in American literature” (Michael Chabon), Jerome Charyn is the award-winning author of more than fifty works, including The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson. A renowned scholar of twentieth-century Hollywood, he lives in Manhattan.

Editorial Reviews

"If all historians—or any historian—could write with the magnetic charm and authoritative verve of Jerome Charyn, American readers would be fighting over the privilege of learning about their past. They can learn much from this book—an audacious, first-person novel that makes Lincoln the most irresistible figure of a compelling story singed with equal doses of comedy, tragedy, and moral grandeur. Here is something beyond history and approaching art."

Harold Holzer

"Jerome Charyn [is] a fearless writer… Brave and brazen… The book is daringly imagined, written with exuberance, and with a remarkable command of historical detail. It gives us a human Lincoln besieged by vividly drawn enemies and allies… Placing Lincoln within the web ordinary and sometimes petty human relations is no small achievement."

New York Review of Books - Andrew Delbanco

"One of our most intriguing fiction writers takes on the story of Honest Abe, narrating the tale in Lincoln’s voice and offering a revealing portrait of a man as flawed as he was great."

O, The Oprah Magazine - Abbe Wright

"Thoughtful, observant and droll."

Richard Brookhiser Richard Brookhiser

"Daring… Memorable… Charyn’s richly textured portrait captures the pragmatism, cunning, despair, and moral strength of a man who could have empathy for his bitterest foes, and who ‘had never outgrown the forest and a dirt floor.’"

The New Yorker

"Not only the best novel about President Lincoln since Gore Vidal’s Lincoln in 1984, but it is also twice as good to read."

Gabor Boritt

"Jerome Charyn, like Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s superb 2012 movie, manages a feat of ventriloquism to be admired… Most of all, Lincoln comes across as human and not some remote giant… With that, Jerome Charyn has given Lincoln a most appropriate present for what would have been his 205th birthday this month: rebirth not as a marble memorial but as a three-dimensional human who overcame much to save his nation."

Christian Science Monitor - Erik Spanberg

"Thoughtful, observant and droll."

Richard Brookhiser

Charyn's best touch is Lincoln's voice: thoughtful, observant and droll, good for the long narrative haul.

The New York Times Book Review - Richard Brookhiser

★ 10/28/2013
Charyn certainly manages to bring the legendary 16th president down to earth; most readers will find it hard to view the Great Emancipator the same way after reading this fictional memoir’s description of him masturbating as a young man. But the novel also succeeds in making the legendary figure more accessible, using Lincoln’s lifelong battle with depression as an avenue through which to explore his life and perspective. The opening section presents the president’s memories of his last night, ending as Booth’s bullet shatters his skull, and then flashing back to 1831 as the young Lincoln begins life in New Salem, Ill. The rest of the book traces his well-known life arc, from prairie lawyer to U.S. president. This is a warts-and-all portrayal, not only of the lead, but of central supporting figures, most especially his tempestuous and difficult wife, Mary. Charyn has managed to craft a fictional autobiography that rings emotionally true. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Jerome Charyn is merely one of our finest writers with a polymorphous imagination and crack comic timing. Whatever milieu he chooses to inhabit, his characters sizzle with life, and his sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable."

Jonathan Lethem

"In the vast literature of Lincolniana, an honorable… place will be made for it, a considerably more inviting one than that occupied since 1984 by Gore Vidal’s ponderous, self-important Lincoln."

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley

"Charyn faces the daunting task of fictionalizing the life of an American icon, but does so with aplomb. …By employing a first-person narrative, he is able to inject Lincoln’s inimitable intelligence, wit, and compassion into every page, as his homespun humor is underscored with his trademark pathos and humanity…. The legend of Lincoln continues to fascinate, and this compulsively readable fictional autobiography approaches the man and the myth from a fresh new angle."

Booklist - Margaret Flanagan

"Jerome Charyn is one of the most important writers in American literature."

Michael Chabon

"Audacious as ever, Jerome Charyn now casts his novelist’s gimlet eye on sad-souled Abraham Lincoln, a man of many parts, who controls events and people—wife, sons, a splintering nation—even though they often are, as they must be, beyond his compassion or power. Brooding, dreamlike, resonant, and studded with strutting characters, I Am Abraham is as wide and deep and morally sure as its wonderful subjects."

Brenda Wineapple

"Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer—so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible."

Tom Bissell

"The novel...succeeds in making the legendary figure more accessible, using Lincoln's lifelong battle with depression as an avenue through which to explore his life and perspective... A warts-and-all portrayal, not only of the lead, but of central supporting figures, most especially his tempestuous and difficult wife, Mary. Charyn has managed to craft a fictional autobiography that rings emotionally true." - Publishers Weekly

"I Am Abraham is not only the best novel about President Lincoln since Gore Vidal's Lincoln in 1984, but it is also twice as good to read." - Gabor Boritt, author of The Lincoln Enigma and recipient of the National Humanities Medal

"Audacious as ever, Jerome Charyn now casts his novelist's gimlet eye on sad-souled Abraham Lincoln, a man of many parts, who controls events and people - wife, sons, a splintering nation - even though they often are, as they must be, beyond his compassion or power. Brooding, dreamlike, resonant, and studded with strutting characters, I Am Abraham is as wide and deep and morally sure as its wonderful subjects." - Brenda Wineapple, author of Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compassion: 1848-1877

"If all historians - or any historian - could write with the magnetic charm and authoritative verve of Jerome Charyn, American readers would be fighting over the privilege of learning about their past. They can learn much from this book - an audacious, first-person novel that makes Lincoln the most irresistible figure of a compelling story singed with equal doses of comedy, tragedy, and moral grandeur. Here is something beyond history and approaching art." - Harold Holzer, chairman, Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation

"Jerome Charyn is one of the most important writers in American literature." - Michael Chabon

"Jerome Charyn is merely one of our finest writers with a polymorphous imagination and crack comic timing. Whatever milieu he chooses to inhabit, his characters sizzle with life, and his sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable." - Jonathan Lethem

"Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer - so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible." - Tom Bissell

From the Publisher

12/01/2013
It should be no surprise that a historical novel by Charyn captures the attention. A deeply lyrical writer, he has proven himself adept at reworking America's historical legends from 1980's Darlin' Bill to The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson in 2010. Reworking is the key to Charyn's approach. His concern is not so much what has been written down about Abraham Lincoln's actions as the inner life and tensions of his famous protagonist: his depression, his deep feelings of unworthiness, but also his compassion for the downtrodden. This re-creation of Lincoln's life is as much domestic history as public, with Lincoln contraposed to his fiery but deeply troubled wife and his three very different sons. Charyn's Lincoln is a real man, not a stick-figure saint. He lusts for Mary Todd in language that is earthy, at times even bawdy. But Lincoln was also, and always, a man who strove to listen to the better angels of his nature, and this, too, comes out in Charyn's book. VERDICT This is another fine novel by a very good author who has a proven track record of attracting readers of all persuasions. What's not to like? [See Prepub Alert, 8/12/13.]—David Keymer, Modesto, CA

Library Journal

This historical novel may challenge the listener’s notions of Lincoln as the somber, wise statesman. Written entirely from a first-person perspective, the audiobook relies heavily on Arthur Morey’s interpretation of the imaginative narrative. Even in his early days as a traveling Illinois lawyer with designs on the prettiest belle in Kentucky, Morey’s Lincoln is both crass and witty. Morey’s steadfast pace throughout the almost lyrical account of Lincoln’s presidential campaign provides a sense of Lincoln’s mule-like commitment to integrity. Especially touching is the undercurrent of cynicism and melancholy that Lincoln tries to overcome, particularly during the Civil War years. Morey allows us to glimpse the Lincoln family’s horrifying mental illnesses without pity, as we imagine the president himself would have done. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2014 - AudioFile

2013-11-17
Charyn (Johnny One-Eye, 2008, etc.) has Abraham Lincoln narrating his own story, beginning a few moments before the assassination and then telling the highlights of his life through a series of flashbacks. Lincoln is presented here literally warts and all, from his rough-and-tumble upbringing to his early career as a lawyer and Illinois state legislator to the burden of being president. His first serious relationship is with Ann Rutledge, with whom Lincoln is very much in love (though Charyn endows him with a 21st-century sexual consciousness that at times seems rather jarring). After Ann's death, Lincoln develops a case of the "blue unholies," a melancholy that haunts him for much of the rest of his life. He next takes up with the vivacious and demanding Mary Todd, who comes across as more of a burden than a helpmeet, especially when they get to the White House, where she is unadmiringly styled the "Lady President." Mary is preoccupied with redecorating, flirting and, later, with deeply grieving the loss of her son, Willie. The portrait of Lincoln readers get is characterized by emotional and psychological complexity, for he's a reluctant candidate, a caustic commander in chief and, at times (understandably), a diffident husband. He, too, is deeply saddened by the death of his son as well as by the deep social divisions he seems unable to bridge. Charyn skillfully weaves bits of speeches and a large cast of characters, most of them drawn from Lincoln's life, into his intricate portrait of the 16th president.

Kirkus Reviews