Review by Robert McCool

Occasionally a book comes along that captures and holds my interest until it's finished. Whether it is story or plot or writing skill, I'm pulled in and all other activities I'm doing fade away because I'm hooked into the book.

Booth (Random House, ISBN 978-0-593-55649-8) is Karen Joy Fowler's 2022 release, and her second novel. (Her first novel is We are All Completely Besides Ourselves). The well-written story is a meticulous glimpse into the past before Abraham Lincoln was killed in cold blood by John Wilkes Booth.

The whole Booth family was theatrical, from John's famous father to the remaining grown male children who survived their childhood with Junius and “Mother” Booth. Junius was a Shakespearean lead actor who played on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and even Australia. His shows were attended by the whole spectrum of society, and praised, until he began to miss curtains because he was drunk, and was occasionally jailed due to alcoholic binges while on the road. Together Junius and Mother had ten children, five of whom reached adulthood.

Junius already had a wife when he married Mother. The woman claimed alimony was due to her. She stayed close to the Booth family throughout their trials and tribulations, never letting them forget that she was Junius’ first wife.

The Booth men all eventually went into theater, and became famous on their own. John Wilkes, as the youngest, was the last to  join the family business and also received acclaim for himself.

The story takes place in the early rumblings before the Civil War, follows the rise of Lincoln from the beginning of his career–with quotes included all along–and his presidency during the war and the ending of the same.

So what drove John Wilkes Booth to do what he did? What evil engine drove him? He was a Confederate believer who wanted to do something to make him famous to the whole world. The aftermath of his actions still hold horror and ill effects today. It is no wonder that his remaining family was nearly killed because of their last name.

I like this book a lot. It covers a wide span of time and includes the emancipation of the slaves and follows them into the era of Jim-Crow laws, when freedom still meant being treated as sub-human by white society.

I hope that readers will take the time to commit to this book. It really is worth it.