The Wordy Shipmates
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Author: Sarah Vowell
- Publisher: Riverhead Trade
- Release Date: October 2009
- ISBN-10: 1594484007
- ISBN-13: 9781594484001
- List Price: $16.00
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryIn this New York Times bestseller, the author of Assassination Vacation "brings the [Puritan] era wickedly to life" (Washington Post). |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
What I didn't know about the Puritans
Rating:
A fun read. Sarah Vowell uses her wit and sensitivity in following the Puritans from the shores of England to what is now Boston. Along the way she examines their relgious beliefs and provides some incite into how we've progressed as a nation. She chronicles her protagonist, John Winthrop, a real person, to give us a glimpse of life in America beginning in the early 1630's. Occasionally, she flashes forward to show how the Puritan ideas may be affecting present day America. Though I didn't buy into everything she wrote, I did enjoy her writing style and found the book hard to put down.
"Puritanically Correct" (PC)
Rating:
Fasten your seatbelt. This is not an ordinary history or revisionist history book. In a book about America's Puritans, would you expect references to Charlie's Angels, the Brady Bunch, John Kennedy, John Kerry, George Bush, and Martin Luther King? Yet Sarah Vowell weaves together a tale to show us what the minds of the Puritans were like.
She's not making up all of this. She supports her statements with letters and other Puritan-era writings. With references to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, marginal notes from the Geneva Bible, and the Magna Carta, she demonstrates how Puritans like Roger Williams and Gov. Winthrop formed their belief in right to trial by one's peers and that even the king is not above the law.
The book will probably give you a new improved perspective on the Puritans. Vowell's writings on Roger Williams' experiences with the Algonquians will likewise present surprising insights on Puritan/Indian interactions.
The thoughtful reader may even deduce that the Puritans, whom most of us have always regarded as so "puritanical," were really little different from mainstream America's "political correctness" advocates, who want us all to "just get along," "think right," or "get with the program."
The Wordy Shipmates
Rating:
I so loved this book. I heard the author promoting it on a couple talk shows and, because of my family history dating back as Rhode Island "refugees Baptists" running from Massachusetts in the 1670's, I ordered the book. I learned so much and Sarah is wonderful story-teller. She cares about all these people and treats them ever so fairly. I sense she feels a deep sadness that John Winthrop's "City on a Hill" came short of what he had invisioned when he embarked on his voyage with the Bible and Magna Carta in hand.
Who thought the Puritans could be fun?
Rating:
I am not a history buff, but I love any well written story. Sarah Vowell brings life and affection to our nation's ancestors in a way school never did. Totally recommend this book, especially if you hate history.
Good Narrative History with a Few Distractions
Rating:
Considering the subject matter--Purtians--Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates was a surprisingly enjoyable read. Vowell's writing style reminds me of Bill Bryson's; she uses a storyteller's voice which makes a topic that could be complete drudgery interesting and relevant. This narrative history treats its subject fairly and presents truly human portraits of its notable characters. For the most part, it's a page turner.
I couldn't give this book five stars, however, for the frequent intrusions of the author into the story. I felt that Vowell's placing her personal and family histories and personal politics--which were marginally relevant to the history being presented--took away from the narrative and made the book feel disjointed and occasionally preachy. Some parts sounded like frank admissions that, despite her wishes to the contrary, Vowell is hopelessly trapped inside her own cynicism. As a result, the book is something less than good historical writing, but still more than mere introspective essays.
That being said, Vowell's treatment of the Puritans is conversational, humorous, and interesting. It's a flawed work, but a good informal history.
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