The Wordy Shipmates

"Sarah Vowell revisits a time we characterize as dull and uptight, which would strike most of us as dull and uptight what with all the Bible study going on in Massachusetts Bay colony, but gives Puritan thought life, a guilty past and relevance to the American project even today. When she writes about realizing that all her knowledge of colonial times comes, essentially, from The Brady Bunch and Happy Days, I saw that in myself and, with what kids focus on today in school and the media, left me wondering where they would ever learn about the New England colonies, their madcap founders, literate feminists who would never think it good to drop a "g" at the end of a word or to be folksy rather than studious.<br/><br/>Maybe The Wordy Shipmates will tell the story to a generation. It's worth the read, it's funny, it makes you think, though I missed the crazy anarchists of Assassination Vacation as it sank in that, despite their high-flying ideals, the Puritans demonstrated they were slaughter zombies in thrall to human power when it came to economic gain and ideological purity. The Indians come off as victims, too, though subject to mitigating circumstances that justify their own tendency to slaughter opposition."

"I may be judging this too harshly because of my expectations going in. After all, the book is well written and probably was a load of work to research. But I had never read anything by SV and I was hoping it would be a bit more like her TAL stories. Those are abbreviated for radio, I am sure. Or maybe I was hoping for more interesting historical anecdotes rather than historical correspondence. The second half was much more interesting to me when it got into some back and forth Indian/settler attacks. For prospective readers I would say if you're looking to know more about the Puritans/settlers through a perspective on their correspondence this is a great read. If you want historical stories start at the second half."