The Partly Cloudy Patriot
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Product Description
In The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and, in doing so, investigates the dusty, bumpy roads of her own life. In this insightful and amusing collection of personal tales Vowell — widely hailed for her unique narratives on public radio’s This American Life — ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she most pleased when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people permanently inappropriately compare themselves to Rosa Parks? Why is a terrible life in sunny California so much worse than a terrible life anywhere else? What is it about the Zen of foul shots? And, in the title piece, why must doubt and internal opinion haunt the sleepless nights of the right patriot?
Her essays confront a wide range of subjects, themes, icons, and past moments: Ike, teddy bear Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton; Canadian Mounties and German filmmakers; Tom Cruise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; twins and nerds; the Gettysburg Take up, the State of the Union, and George W. Bush’s swearing in.
The result is a teeming and engrossing book, capturing Vowell’s memorable wit and her keen social commentary.
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I dont know why this book got so many excellent reviews. Some parts of the book are amusing but for the most part I establish it to be whiny and pointless. I thought I was getting a history book that may have some appealing tales in it. As a replacement for I got a book on current events with the theme Republican’s are evil. In all-purpose I establish this book to be yucky and depressing.
Also I reflect Sarah watches too many movies because every additional page is a reference to one. Then she has to clarify why the reference is significant and by the time she gets back to what she was talking about I establish myself yearning for her to come to the point already. Then I learned there really was no point.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
There’s nothing much going on here, so I’m surprised why so many people find this book so appealing. Vowell’s no deep thinker and there’s nothing particularly amusing about what she says. This book comes off as the mildly entertaining musings of a name you might meet at a party — but not particularly want to see again. (And, oddly, despite a aver to have an essay on Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the inside of the dust jacket, no such essay in in this volume.)
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I was truly surprised at the number of positive reviews for this book. I thought it was so-so. My theory is that if a work is produced by, and is about, a particular political point of view, people of the same mind will be much more favorably disposed to that work, even to the point of inaccuracy.
The dustjacket praise was so lavish, so gushing, that I bought this book for a buck at the second-hand store. That was last week. I’m still scratching my head wondering what all the praise was about. But, according to my theory, perhaps that’s because I’m not liberal–I just don’t fall into line with others of the party.
But, I am a huge David Sedaris fan. The man is no conservative, but he can write very well. He’s an acute, insighttful, entertaining master of the essay. Vowell, on the additional hand, comes across as a kid writing in her journal. There are some excellent moments, some keen observations, but in all-purpose I establish this book to be on a high school or college level of writing aptitude. It was inconsistent, went off on too many tangents, and could not seem to make it more than one paragraph lacking relating the theme matter at hand to some movie.
I reflect people like Vowell for her writing, but also because she’s this cute small pixie, lovable as hell. That goes a long way.
I’m sure that Vowell is a wonderful person. But she is certainly not all that she’s cracked up to be. Perhaps her additional books are better. I hope so.If you want essays, read Sedaris.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I don’t know; maybe it’s because I’m a Canadian, but I really don’t get what people see in Vowell. Maybe it’s the appeal of the “young-smart history-nerd combo,” like somebody thinks that’s a rare thing. Probably all of the above plus a dash of fantastic writing and a sprinkling of apple pie flavor for Ancient Glory.
Personally, though, I couldn’t find in this book the howlingly amusing curmudgeon that reviews here had led me to expect. Some insight, perhaps, though I felt myself wishing she was writing from a small more experience.
Maybe it’s like that thing with airline pilots, imagining them with salt-and-pepper hair and, though their hands are steady, just a trace of crows’ feet around the eyes.
Deep down, maybe I prefer my historians and history buffs to be way older than me. Vowell is probably a fantastic way for younger audiences to get into political issues, but — and maybe it loses something, not hearing it read aloud in her own voice! — I personally establish it hard to get excited about her causes, and harder to empathize with her odd American passions.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
As I was driving by a 19th-century rural graveyard near the site of George and Libby Custer’s honeymoon in upstate New York one Friday afternoon, Sarah Vowell’s voice came sighing out of my Pontiac’s speakers as she was interviewed over National Public Radio, where she works. At first that hint of nepotism rankled, until the lady clarified how post-Sept. 11 American “jingoism” rankled her. In both spoken and written word, Vowell uses low-key humor to sketch out vital Truths, quietly achieving a goal which eludes most modern writers: heightening the existences of his/her readers.
Anyhow, Vowell’s succinctly written accounts of life in the Huge City, inter-familial conflicts, political disappointments and — best yet — her obsessive travels to sites of bloody battles and assassinations are simultaneously entertaining and edifying.
One thing disturbs me: In briefly recounting her visit to Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Vowell intimates that President Kennedy was in fact shot to death by one of her fellow nerds, the hapless (and notably late) Lee Harvey Oswald. She should read Peter Dale Scott’s “Deep Politics and the Death of JFK” or Mark North’s “Act of Treason” or David Scheim’s “Contract on America” or any number of additional unofficial histories that could set her straight on that sad misunderstanding.
Persons of us nearing our personal half-century inscription became partly cloudy patriots on Nov. 22, 1963. In retrospect, Sept. 11 and the hollow jingoism it produced is like a carnival mirror image of the uneasy blend of pride and bring shame on that all exploded that dreadful weekend 39 years ago in Huge D. …
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5