Stephen Prothero
On first blush Vowell seems like an angry atheist set down at the historian's table. But under this anger is a good measure of empathy. Hers is not the narrative of an angry adolescent who never wants to return to her Pentecostal parents' home. It is the narrative of an adult who wants to see her American home for what it is—and for what it has done to her, and to us…what makes The Wordy Shipmates float is not so much its arguments as its voice. Most writing on the Puritans is as dour as the Puritans themselves. Vowell has fun with them, and in the process, she helps us take seriously both their lives and their legacy.
—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Vowell’s account of the post-Mayflower Puritans of New England and their influence on contemporary American culture over the centuries is thoroughly enjoyable in print. But hearing her ironic but passionate little-girl voice making history accessible and providing humorous and often trenchant present-day asides, as she did on NPR’s This American Life, is even better. In addition to fleshing out history with extensive quotes from journals and other documents of the time, Vowell has assembled a sizable cast of co-readers, including Eric Bogosian, Peter Dinklage, Jill Clayburgh, Campbell Scott and Dermot Mulroney. Some narrators feel like stunt casting, although there’s a lovely cameo by Catherine Keener, whose calm, self-contained voice is perfect for Anne Hutchinson on trial. Vowell and company (aided by Michael Giacchino’s musical score) make for pleasurable listening. A Riverhead hardcover (Reviews, July 28). (Oct.)
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Kirkus Reviews
NPR contributor Vowell (Assassination Vacation, 2005, etc.) takes a hard but affectionate look at the legacy of those doughty, slightly deranged Puritans who landed in the New World in 1630. Fans will be pleased to see that Vowell's admittedly smart-alecky style is alive and well: It's not every historical monograph that tosses together Anne Hutchinson and Nancy Drew, Dolly Parton and John Endecott. The author's characteristic devotion to detail is also evident. Previously she was obsessed with America's political assassinations; here she pores over the texts-the many texts-of the principals who interest her: John Cotton, John Winthrop and Roger Williams, in addition to the aforementioned Hutchinson and Endecott. She likes to visit the places most relevant to her subjects too; we learn, for instance, that a Boston jewelry store now occupies the site where Mistress Anne's house once stood. Vowell examines what she sees as the cascading effects of the Puritans' arrival, drawing a straight line from Massachusetts Bay to Abu Ghraib. She continually bashes the current President Bush, points out the tarnish that others seem to ignore on the well-burnished image of President Reagan (who patently lied about Iran-Contra) and ends with a paean to JFK. This approach can be jarring, as the author yanks readers back and forth between recent and colonial history from Charlie's Angels to the Visible Saints. Still, she dives into dense Puritan sermons and self-flagellating journal entries to emerge, generally, with a bit of truth. She chides us for careless use of the word Puritan and disdain for public intellectuals. "The downside of democracy, she finds, is "a suspicion of people who know what they aretalking about." In the end, she admires Winthrop's surprising tenderness, Hutchinson's chatterbox courage. At times dense, at times silly, at times surpassingly wise. Agent: Jaime Wolf/Pelosi Wolf Effron & Spates
NOVEMBER 2008 - AudioFile
Essayist and public radio contributor Sarah Vowell recounts the journey of the ARABELLA, England's lesser-known Puritan venture to the New World, and the ensuing settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In an endeavor hefty in scope and satire, Vowell's charmingly childlike voice and tempered pace ease the listener along as she discusses the Puritanical origins of the muddled relationship between church and state in the U.S. With subtle inflections and her famously deadpan sarcasm, Vowell simply yet eloquently articulates her case for secular government. An assortment of celebrities intermittently recites Vowell's referenced historical quotes in earnest, enhancing the bill. The erudite performance also benefits from a handful of brief Old World musical interludes, aptly evoking the Seafaring Age. A.P.C. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
