Burr

My recollection is that I read Burr voraciously forty years ago, and I am hard pressed to figure out why. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Today I find a competently written, intelligent, readable historical novel. The Jacksonian period is a good one, though not vividly portrayed; but the real appeal of the story is not in that time but in the Revolutionary reminiscences of iconoclastic, cynical Aaron Burr.

In the last few decades, I've read a lot of historical novels with iconoclastic, cynical protagonists, and a lot of them had much more verve and humor than Burr. Of course, the last few decades were a good season for iconoclasty and cynicism, in literature, history, and politics. Gore Vidal may deserve credit for putting his plow to the ground first, and coming up with a decent book.

From bygone days, I remembered only a couple of things about Burr; first, that Martin Van Buren was in it. Actually, talked about some, but not a major character. Second, that there was a surprise ending. I remembered the surprise by page two, and was surprised mainly by its irrelevance to the plot.