Week 17: Burr by Gore Vidal
Ever since I stumbled upon the soundtrack of Hamliton, the Broadway hit musical, written by and starring Lin Manual Miranda, the catchy songs lodged itself into an annoying corner of my brain, constantly playing on loop. To be honest, I had no idea who Alexander Hamilton or Aaron Burr were until I heard of this play. Thus the catchy tunes ignited in me a curiosity about the early years of American freedom. When I found this book in my home library, dusty and with yellowing pages, obscured by my Harry Potter collection, I was extremely excited to say the least.
Burr is a biography of Aaron Burr, American revolutionary and the third Vice President of the US. His name is often obs
cured in notoriety for killing his political rival, Alexander Hamilton and for his ambition to become the Supreme ruler of Mexico. While Burr is largely a historic re-telling of Aaron Burr’s life, the book does have a couple of fictional elements. The book is presented as a confession of sorts of Burr narrating his life to Charles Schuyler, his protege, a law clerk in his office. While there is no real Charles Schuyler, in his Afterward Gore Vidal tells us the character is loosely based on Charles Burdett, an obscure novelist of the time.
My first impression of Aaron Burr was largely formed based on the negative light the musical Hamilton portrayed him in. His character was pretty much summed up in the song ‘Aaron Burr, Sir’, where Alexander Hamilton asks him ‘If you stand for nothing sir, what will you fall for?’. This book completely changed the way I saw him. This book tells us of his life, of when he was a young revolutionary fighting in Canada, of his steady political accession after independence, of his critical election for Vice President, of his bitter rivalry with Hamilton, of his misguided attempt to rule the Western States and of his old age, with his small legal practice. And he seemed like quite a decent guy. I mean he is a politician at heart, more interested in public regard than personal conviction. But he still ranks quite highly among the lot he represents.
This book surrounds the historically accurate account of Aaron Burr’s life in an extremely intriguing fictional premise. It runs parallely in two timelines, Charlie’s interviews and Burr’s stories from his life. And they both are really fascinating. I would be tempted to say history has never been more interesting, but the aforementioned musical steals that accolade. However I think I can say, history not in the form of contemporary hip-hop does not get any better. Do read Burr for a fascinating tale of the rather petty politicians that were the elite of the new-born America.
