I Am Abraham: A Novel of Lincoln and the Civil War

It should be no surprise that a historical novel by Charyn captures the attention. A deeply lyrical writer, he has proven himself adept at reworking America's historical legends from 1980's Darlin' Bill to The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson in 2010. Reworking is the key to Charyn's approach. His concern is not so much what has been written down about Abraham Lincoln's actions as the inner life and tensions of his famous protagonist: his depression, his deep feelings of unworthiness, but also his compassion for the downtrodden. This re-creation of Lincoln's life is as much domestic history as public, with Lincoln contraposed to his fiery but deeply troubled wife and his three very different sons. Charyn's Lincoln is a real man, not a stick-figure saint. He lusts for Mary Todd in language that is earthy, at times even bawdy. But Lincoln was also, and always, a man who strove to listen to the better angels of his nature, and this, too, comes out in Charyn's book.