The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell (audio)

Let me describe for you the setting…my children, my husband, my in-laws and I are traveling for hours in a small car to visit the world-renowned Wieliczka salt mines. The kids are fighting in the back, the family pet wiener dog is barking at people walking along the side of the road, and my husband and in-laws are all shouting at once in Polish (the only way they can hear each other above the din), and the navigation voice, deemed Carmen, giving me convoluted directions. Reading my Kindle just doesn’t cut it. I can’t focus. I feel like my head is going to explode. The solution? A good audio book on my iPod, volume turned way up, to take me away. Enter “The Wordy Shipmates”.

This audio was recommended by ds @ Third Storey Window. Her review was so compelling, I spontaneously ordered it from the library. I had no idea, really, what I was in for, but it ended up being the perfect antidote to what ailed me. The audio was narrated by the author, Sarah Vowell, and supported by a star-studded cast. In these situations, when the author excels at narration, this is the way to go. It is like multi-dimensional literature…the author’s personality not only comes through in the written word, but through their actual voice as well. The story is delivered in the spirit in which it was intended, which is the case here.

Vowell’s smart-alecky, dry, sarcastic but childlike voice delivers a delightful recounting of the adventures of the shipload of Puritans, led by John Winthrop, that came over to American in 1630, ten years after the Mayflower. How can this possibly be close to entertaining, you ask? I promise you, you have never heard the story told quite like this. For those of you that know me in real life, this story would be like me, with my colorful, unchecked vernacular, telling you the story over a glass of wine.

Vowell does an excellent job in giving us the historical facts, including excerpts from diaries, letters and documented sermons. She explores a whole cast of characters, starring Winthrop, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and several tribes of Indians. But she also injects her own interpretation, boiling it down in lay terms, telling us who was thought to be full of crap, linking the settlers actions and theories with current flawed political figures, and tying in our preconceptions of the Puritans from what we learned on the Brady Bunch and Happy Days.

Vowell’s comedic timing is dead on, and despite the ruckus going on around me, I found myself laughing out loud through the entire book. I wish I had had a notepad handy to write down some of her one-liners. There were hundreds of them. So many that I’m thinking I will keep this audio around for awhile on my iPod for a repeat listening. It is plain to see that Vowell is deeply fascinated with the topic at hand, and finds great joy in laying it out for us to enjoy as well.

The one caution I would offer is that Vowell isn’t shy about expressing her religious and political views. If you are a staunch Republican or deeply religious and are highly sensitive about either, you might get your feelings hurt. Chances are, however, you will receive this book in the same spirit I did…a really fun way to learn a little about our forefathers.

4.5 out of 5 stars