Description: Burr is a portrait of perhaps the most complex and misunderstood of the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. Burr retains much of his political influence if not the respect of all. And he is determined to tell his own story. As his amanuensis, he chooses Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, a young New York City journalist, and together they explore both Burr's past and the continuing political intrigues of the still young United States.

Opening: 1833: One: A Special Despatch to the New York Evening Post: SHORTLY BEFORE MIDNIGHT, July 1, 1833, Colonel Aaron Burr, aged seventy-seven, married Eliza Jumel, born Bowen fifty-eight years ago (more likely sixty-five but remember: she is prone to litigation!). The ceremony took place at Madame Jumel's mansion on the Washington Heights and was performed by Doctor Bogart (will supply first name later). In attendance were Madame Jumel's niece (some say daughter) and her husband Nelson Chase, a lawyer from Colonel Burr's Reade Street firm. This was the Colonel's second marriage; a half century ago he married Theodosia Prevost.

The ingenue narrator of this fictionalised biography is one Charles Schuyler. There is energy and a strong didactic oppositional stance to the narrative that will indubitably appeal to state citizens and USAphiles.

The curtain-raiser to Leggett's continuing drama occurred when he was cashiered from the navy for fighting a duel. At the court-martial he insulted his commanding officer with a tirade of quotations from Shakespeare. (p. 15)[heh]



3* Burr
WL Julian
3* Myra Breckinridge
5* Creation

Hmmm, this is a tricky one to rate, as I found some parts of it very fascinating and some parts almost interminable. Fair or not, especially in the wake of the musical Hamilton, a lot of my interest in Aaron Burr has to do with his relationship with Hamilton. Since he lived a long time after the famous duel, and was still politically active, the parts of the book having to do with his life after Hamilton had a lot less interest for me. And even though those events are interesting, I found them confusingly dealt with in the book. I really struggled to follow what happened with the whole Mexico conspiracy--whether this was intentional (Burr is somewhat of an unreliable narrator here, after all), or if it was just due to my lack of knowledge on the subject, I don't know. But I found those memories to be the least interesting (although I really did enjoy his recount of the treason trial he subsequently faced--my More Perfect listening self was really interested in more information about John Marshall, the Supreme Court, and legal precedent set out by this trial).

I also struggled with the frame of this book. Using Charlie Schuyler (a fictional lawyer/newspaper writer) to tell Burr's story was a strange choice for me. I had almost zero interest in Charlie, his relationship with Helen, and how his story played out. I also didn't really care about the Martin Van Buren piece of the plot--apparently my interest in the politics of the mid-1830's is shockingly low.

That being said, I found Burr as a narrator, both in his conversations with Charlie and in his memories, to be really interesting. Especially when talking about the founding of the nation and his relationship with Hamilton--those parts were deeply interesting to me. It reminded me a lot of Hamilton's last song "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story," as a lot of this is about how Burr's story is hijacked from him and told by his enemies. I also thought the fact that this really humanized these men and didn't shy away from sharing their petty jealousies was interesting--not generally the way the Founding Fathers are presented. Burr's thoughts on Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson were particularly fascinating to me.

So overall I am glad I read this book, but significant parts of it were a pretty big slog for me. If we could do half stars, I'd probably rate it 2.5, but I rounded up because the parts I found interesting were truly fascinating to me. If you are really interested in learning more about Burr, this is a good book, as as far as I can tell, most of it is accurate, if biased to the Burr viewpoint. If you're interested in the politics of the 1830's, you will like it even more.

I wish I liked this more. I loved Gore Vidal's Lincoln. This is not as compelling a subject. It is still not clear to me what caused the duel with Hamilton. Gossip? What is clear politics today is not different from that of founding fathers. News and fake news just travel faster.

This is the first book in Gore Vidal's American Chronicle series. I read the entire series a few years ago and really enjoyed it. However, Burr was my favorite in the series so I decided to re-read it. It follows Charles Schuyler who is a young author trying to write Aaron Burr's memoirs. (Schuyler or his descendents appear in every one of the American Chronicle books.)

Vidal has a gift for bringing boring dead guys to life. Vidal's Burr is a fascinating character and his interpretation of our nation's founders, particularly Washington and Jefferson, is a bit different than the traditional view. At the very least it makes the reader question their greatness. For historical fiction, this is the best that I've read.