by Jerome Charyn
published by Liveright
2014
ISBN 978-0-87140-427-5
Why Read?: Review
Challenges: Historical Fiction, 100 Books in a Year
Jerome Charyn is known for taking
historical characters and telling their story.
In I Am Abraham, he turns to
the great American president, Abraham Lincoln, also dramatizing a nation at war
with itself.
Charyn starts his story with a
young Abe Lincoln washing up in New Salem, Illinois. From there, we follow his military and
political career, as well as his love life.
Charyn does not end with Lincoln’s assassination; rather, this known
ending is covered in the prologue, which really makes for a unique story
devise.
I
Am Abraham is the third book by Jerome Charyn I have read. While I loved his YA novel, Back to Battan, his two adult novels I
have read, The Secret Life of Emily
Dickinson and now I Am Abraham,
have not sat well with me. There is no
denying that Charyn is an expert historical fiction writer, and therein lies
the problem. He brings these famous
people to life with such believable rawness, that they become too human, even
unlikeable. He really brings the feel of
the times through with excellent descriptions and accurate language, more so than
other writers of the genre, and this I do appreciate.
I
Am Lincoln is one of those books that is very hard to review. Jerome Charyn’s writing definitely rates a 5,
but the presentation is so off-putting to me, that personally I would rate the
book a 1 if asked for my non-reviewer opinion.
I think I will have to split the difference.
Rating: 3/5
Honest Abe values honesty, so I thank you so much for taking the time to read the novel and for your thoughtful review. I wish you loved Charyn's presentation as much as you love his writing. But , before you bid this novel farewell, please take a moment to listen to what NPR's Scott Simon, a Lincoln scholar himself, thought: http://www.npr.org/2014/02/15/277035166/through-the-mind-of-a-novelist-lincoln-shares-his-life-story?ft=1&f=1033
ReplyDeleteRicki, thanks for taking the time to read and review Jerome's latest.
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