Sarah Vowell Q&A |

Who is Sarah Vowell?

She’s been compared to Lisa Simpson. She was the voice of Violet in Pixar’s The Incredibles. She used to be a rock journalist, and now she writes historical/political non-fiction.

What?

Yep. Sarah Vowell isn’t your everyday American history buff. While her mid-30s contemporaries are churning out chick-lit as fast as their manicured fingers can manage it, Vowell’s chosen a different literary path. And frankly, when considered against the pink covers that crowd bookstores, her new tome, Assassination Vacation,  sticks out like a sore (and uniquely intelligent) thumb.

Jacket: Assassination Vacation, 2005.

The book is sort of about American presidential assassinations.

(Specifically of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.) It’s set against a backdrop of historical tourism and Vowell’s own slightly bizarre road trips.

And believe it or not, it’s funny.

So what exactly might make a woman turn from Foo-Fighters fan to Garfield fanatic? We called Vowell up to ask.

JS: So how do you go from being a rock critic to a political historian?

SV: Well, everything has been a progression I guess. Mainly I just have a bad attention span. I was never going to be a rock critic forever. I love music, but only obsessively. Like I don’t care about whatever the new release is this week.

After being a critic, I started working on National Public Radio (NPR) on this show called This American Life, doing personal essays, documentaries … my interest grew from there.I made a documentary about seven years ago and that was my first, and I was interested in that because my ancestors we on it…

And also, in terms of being a rock critic, it’s a really thankless job. You’re writing about a really loud noise all of the time, and when you’re writing about music, your writing is always being drowned out by the music itself. It’s always there in the background, influencing everything.

Historical writing isn’t like that?

When you’re writing about guys like Garfield, or in my last book I wrote about Al Gore – guys who are seemingly hum drum, it’s not as easy, but it’s also a more exciting challenge to make someone like Al Gore funny, or someone like Garfield interesting.

I’m interested in history and historical tourism in particular just because I believe in fun, and when you write about American history there’s a lot of violence, but when you write about historical tourism, it’s not just about that.

But why assassinations? Anything to do with the current president?

I’m fully against violence toward the president (and in general), as I say in the book. So no, I didn’t say to myself, ‘boy I have so much contempt for the president, I’m going to go find out about others guys who had so much contempt for the president, they decided to shoot him.’

I’m fairly self aware, but I’m not that self aware.

You say in the book that you like to call George W. Bush “the current president” because that implies his administration is only temporary. Do you have any opinions on Canadian politics?

I don’t really know much about Canadian politics, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that I guess it’s a bunch of people who are politely agreeing to disagree.

I guess I should have boned up, huh?

Nope. That’s basically it.

The beginning of the book makes your political affiliations pretty clear. Do you ever worry that not being neutral will negatively affect sales?

Not really. I have my own little corner of the world, but really the only people who read my books are the people who would read my books. I’d love to say my comments are so alienating …

I guess if anything, people like having their own opinions reinforced. That wasn’t about me needing people to know my opinions on the president. It was me having a reaction …

I write for people who don’t read about the Garfield assassination and that introduction was very intentional in that regard. It was a sort of disclaimer. I wanted it to be clear from the beginning that this wasn’t going to be that sort of book – not that there’s anything wrong with that sort of book, but I just couldn’t write one.

I saw a bit of you on The Daily Show last week. You seemed pretty chummy with Jon Stewart. He’s also a voice on the audio book (along with Conan O’Brien, Stephen King, and others). Whose idea was that?

Everyone that’s on there, the thing they have in common is that they would take my telephone calls. I wanted the audio book to be more fun. Audio books aren’t books. They’re CDs. There’s more pressure to be more entertaining than a book. Conan is a huge history buff, especially with Lincoln. I had him be Robert Todd Lincoln …  He was the only person who’d actually heard of Robert Todd Lincoln, let alone had visited his super boring house.

The National Post called you a grown up Lisa Simpson. How do you feel about the cartoon connections?

I think the Lisa Simpson thing is just about my voice.

Are you working on another book?

No. I wish I were, but no. I just haven’t had an idea yet.

Are there any questions you wish interviewers would ask you? Or is there anything you wanted to add or get out there before we go? 

I always ask that, too. And no one ever does. I guess not, I feel adequately quizzed.

A version of this Sarah Vowell Q&A, about her book Assassination Vacation, published in Dose, May 2, 2005.

Published in Dose magazine, May 2, 2005.

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