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

by Jerome Charyn

Jerome Charyn’s “daring” and “memorable” ( The New Yorker ) historical novel renders the inner life of our sixteenth president like never before. This unforgettable portrait of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War effortlessly mixes humor with Shakespearean-like tragedy to create an achingly human portrait of the sixteenth president. Charyn conducts an orchestra of historical figures and fictional extras centered around a profoundly moral but troubled commander in chief whose relationship with his Ophelia-like wife and his sons―Robert, Willie, and Tad―is explored with penetrating psychological insight and the utmost compassion. Seized by melancholy and imbued with an unfaltering sense of human worth, Charyn’s President Lincoln comes to vibrant, three-dimensional life in a haunting portrait we have rarely seen in historical fiction. 10 illustrations

Genres: Historical Fiction, Civil War, Fiction, Historical, American History, Presidents, War

456 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2014

About the author

Jerome Charyn is an award-winning American author. With more than 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."

Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.

Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.

In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."

Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."

Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.

Reviews

[Ruth Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me begin by prefacing this review with the following:
1. Abraham Lincoln is my favorite president.
2. I have not read Bill O'Reilly's book about Lincoln, but I have seen the film.
3. I also saw that Lincoln film that came out last year.

I don't recall when my interest in Abraham Lincoln began, but I know I was quite young. I couldn't get enough of Civil War history, and I was always intrigued by President Lincoln. When I began reading this book, I was completely engrossed. In some ways, my "rushing" through the book was somewhat of a shame, but I knew the efficacy of producing a quality review within a limited amount of time.

Let's get the negatives out of the way first. I could have done without the profanity, but all profanity seemed to be used correctly (if that makes sense), and knowing Lincoln's background, he may have spoken somewhat like the author paints him. Thankfully the Lord's name was never used inappropriately, and the "f" word never made its appearance. I also could have done without some of the sexual imagery, but it was not terribly detailed, and often it was implied. In addition to this, most of it was appropriate.

Positives? I could go on for quite some time, but let me point out the highlights. I adored the opening of the book, and I also was enraptured with the first person narrative. I learned much about Lincoln (and according the epilogue, the author did his homework) and his family. Much of what I learned concerned his early political career and the other members of his family. While I have not verified everything I read, it seems that the things I have learned are true.

My favorite thing about this book is that for the first time, Abraham Lincoln seems like a real person. He lived, loved, made mistakes, and changed our country for the better. This book is truly a testament to his unbelievable life.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.

[MAP · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the Lincoln novel I've been waiting for.

Now, full disclosure: I haven't read Gore Vidal's Lincoln, which I've heard is the gold standard. But I have read several pieces of fiction surrounding Lincoln (or Mary Todd), and they have ranged from pretty satisfactory to NO GOD NO KILL IT WITH FIRE. So I am really excited that this book was so good.

Charyn decided to tell the whole novel from a first-person perspective, taking on the task of replicating Lincoln's unique style of speech. This he does remarkably well, and at something that I didn't think could be done successfully. The novel follows Lincoln from his time in New Salem up until the end of the civil war, with many many years skipped in the intervals.

This book has everything I could want: Charyn understands (and you can read it in his author's note at the end) Mary's complexity, and doesn't write her off as either a harridan or a complete lunatic. He also is willing to see Lincoln as an actual human man, including having sexual desires and thoughts, as well as liking vulgar jokes (which Lincoln actually did.) I've read too many books (AHEM Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln) that seem so uncomfortable with the idea of Lincoln being a sexually active human being that they somehow make it that he and Mary almost literally only have sex enough times to have their 4 boys. Ridonkulous!

The book's not perfect: if you don't know the basic history and characters who play into Lincoln's life, this book is NOT going to help you, but it's overall an ambitious book that is remarkably successful at its goals of capturing Lincoln's voice as well as his life.

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rare is it for any reader to chance upon a novel that succeeds beyond expectation in eliciting his/her excitement and capturing his/her interest with the first sentence or paragraph. Well, 'I am Abraham' is such a novel, richly told and largely spoken in Lincoln's own voice.

Lincoln goes on to take the reader back to his humble beginnings in New Salem (Illinois), where he arrived penniless and poor, yet hungry to improve his lot in life. In all, he spends 5 years there, going from serving as a store clerk, postmaster, ferrying flatboats downriver to New Orleans and back, service as a captain in the local militia during the brief Black Hawk War, and work as a railsplitter. Lincoln then moves to Springfield, where he apprentices himself to the law, serves in the local legislature, marries and has a family, serves one term in Congress, maintains a private law practice with his friend William Herndon, and keeps a hand in politics. Though losing the 1858 Senate race in Illinois to Stephen Douglas, Lincoln becomes famous as a result of the 7 debates he had with Douglas. Two years later, he is invited to New York City, where he makes a speech at Cooper Union that leads to him becoming a candidate for President for the new Republican Party, and through a close election, President of the United States. All the while, Lincoln's voice comes alive, so much so that the reader feels very much a part of Lincoln's world in matters great and small.

"I Am Abraham" has all the hallmarks of what makes a novel great. (Next to Gore Vidal's novel "Lincoln", it makes Abraham Lincoln live again.) It's also one of the BEST novels I've read thus far in 2015 and for that reason, comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[Mitzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just can't with this book. I'm giving up - and I rarely do that. In fact, it took me 3 tries to finally quit reading it, I hate that much to quit a book, but I managed it - right around the time when I read Abraham Lincoln referring to masturbation as "pulling on his root" and then calling his ejaculate "jelly". JELLY. I'm no prude, but for some reason my brain just can't reconcile ABRAHAM LINCOLN saying things like that. Another example - calling a certain part of a woman's anatomy hair pie. HAIR PIE. I just can't...

[Elnora Romness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oftentimes we lose the man to the legend. We build up so much story around a historical/political/whatever-al figure that we forget who the real person was....or that So-and-So was a real person. Nowadays figures in the public eye can - and have - fire back, defending their personality and true self. When that figure is someone who perhaps had one of the biggest stamps on the history of the nation, but has been dead for over a hundred years, his or her ability to fight off critics is lessened (well, duh!). How much can we really learn about someone purely from what he left in written form and other historical documentation? Quite a lot, actually.
LONG STORY SHORT...
If those who had written my history textbooks had been as interesting, much boredom would have been averted. Charyn has here created a startlingly intimate, personal depiction of Abraham Lincoln told from the point of view of none other than the 16th President himself. An audacious task, but one that Charyn pulled off so well that it felt as though this were an autobiography, not historical fiction. It gripped me from the beginning as a melancholy man predisposed to the "blue unholies" (aka depression) was thrust from one difficult situation into another. Events that I remember reading about in school came to life on the page in a way only possible when looking through another person's eyes, not through a dank retelling of the mere facts from a history book's perspective. This Abraham has real, raw emotions. He is just a man, after all...not some god. He is Abraham.

On a ascending scale of 1 to 5, this book receives a sound 5!

LONG STORY...
The Good
This is historical fiction. This is historical fiction done extremely well. This is historical fiction done so well that if I had more spare time, I would do some more digging and learning about the world that surrounded Mr. Abraham Lincoln. It is a good thing when fiction can get me interested in history, which is a topic that I've historically (ha ha ha) avoided for fear of falling into a somnambulant text.

Charyn here undertook an audacious task: craft a historical fiction piece about Abraham Lincoln told by Abraham Lincoln. Frankly, I'd be too scared to do this. What if I got something wrong? What if I mistold something? What if I riled historians everywhere by screwing something major up? Heck, what if I messed up the lingo??? I don't know if these questions plagued Charyn, but if they did I don't think he should have worried.

First, it seemed as though Mr. Lincoln himself was speaking dir-ect-ly from these here pages. The lingo was historically accurate and consistently so (despite the fact that said lingo contains vernacular now deemed unacceptable). A real man's personality lept from the pages. Lincoln is deified in some places - he freed the slaves, after all - and held on a high pedestal. Charyn's interpretation of Lincoln is of a man who would be down right mortified to see himself in the iconic position he has attained in our current world. He's just a man, after all. A man plagued by the "blue unholies". A man with a tempestuous wife and a son who is just as wild as he once was. A man practically swimming in the blood of men and women who died for the cause that he is championing.

Second, it is obvious that Charyn wrote this novel with a lot of time and care. Now, that might seem like a silly thing to say, but I've read historical fiction stories where it was obvious that the author was so interested in constructing their story as they wanted it to go that history be danged. Not so here. I'm not a well-schooled historian by any means (you'd have to ask my husband about historical things, that's his area), but from what I do remember about events and such that are mentioned here, Charyn took pains to make sure that the history was accurate. Of course I'm sure license was taken in some places, simply because that is the nature of writing fiction, but I've no doubt that major details are completely accurate.

Third, this novel makes it clear that the Civil War was not Lincoln's entire life. True, he was the presiding President during the War and one of the major reasons that it started and progressed as it did. It is also true that before this he was a lawyer, a son, a lover, and a man. The Civil War was a grand total of 4ish years (1861-1865) of Lincoln's total 56 years of life. A whole 52 years transpired where Lincoln walked the Earth before the North and South split. While Charyn does not cover the totality of those 52 years, he does go over a sizeable chunk. I also appreciate that it makes clear that slavery was not the only issue on Lincoln's mind during the Civil War - he was just as concerned about unification of the states.

Now, keep this in mind - Charyn does not claim this book to be an authoritative biography of Lincoln. He makes it clear that this "is a family chronicle, where the fury of war and politics rumble in the background, while Lincoln does a macabre dance with his generals, feuds with his eldest boy, and tries to contain the furies of his wife. The novel is told entirely in Lincoln's voice, that strange mix of the vernacular and the formal tones of a man who only had a few months of learning at a 'blab school' and essentially had to teach himself." It is a picture, a representation, and a da** good one at that.

All of the above is written in a super engaging manner. Poignant phrases pepper (say that 3 times fast) this work, lines that make you stop and go "huh". Battle scenes (both on the field and in the home) come to life in a super vibrant way. Heck, Lincoln's walk upon the Earth comes to life in a super vibrant way. I think this book needs to be required reading in every class that covers anything to do with Lincoln. It is an amazing book that is incredibly well written, engaging, and downright nifty.

The Bugly (bad/ugly)
The only real problem I have with this work is that it is as long as it is good. 450+ pages, phew! It takes a lot of reading stamina to make it through this work. Not the fastest read ever, but not the slowest either. It is just loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.

Honestly, this is a superb book - there is a reason that Charyn is an award-winning author.

CHECK OUT MY BLOG FOR MORE: onlygodwritestrees.blogspot.com

[Tony Laplume · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing you think, if you've ever been lucky enough to have read Jerome Charyn previously, is that I Am Abraham seems a lot like, well, a Jerome Charyn novel.

I haven't read enough of Charyn, but I've read enough where the general pattern of his fiction emerges. He might almost be considered the condensed version of Thomas Pynchon. If his books were ever made into movies, they would be directed by Quentin Tarantino (Charyn wrote a biography of him, by the way, Raised by Wolves, which ends around the Kill Bill period; it would probably be safe to say that he has enjoyed the last few films immensely).

I Am Abraham diverges from the Charyn tradition. By the time Lincoln enters his presidential career, which is a swift transition in the novel (one minute he's debating Douglas and the next he's President), the Civil War breaks out. Charyn switches gears into a lot of Civil War talk. He's always been a kind of gossip novelist (I would never really have considered Alexander Hamilton the way I do now if it weren't for his portrayal in Johnny One-Eye), and he doesn't miss the opportunities for that kind of storytelling here, but it's a marked difference to find him in a somber and contemplative mood by the end. In an author's note he explains that he came to understand Lincoln better once he saw how similar they were, melancholy moods striking both of them inconveniently.

It's the ending, really, that characterizes the whole book, ties the narrative together. As you're reading you don't realize what Charyn is doing with his Lincoln, continuing the thread of the out-of-place giant always yearning for something he continually fears he'll never have, even though he always does get it. He assumes the reader is already familiar enough with the Civil War where he won't have to explain everything, so when he goes into some of the familiar beats (at least, for amateur buffs like me) it's easier to play along, easier to apparently lose Lincoln in the shuffle. But, again, when the end comes, you suddenly know what's happened, how Charyn has followed the same man with the same point of view through his changing fortunes (which is what Charyn loves to do in all his books) to an unexpected but entirely appropriate conclusion.

Lincoln is to date Charyn's best-known subject. Readers unfamiliar with Charyn might be a little shocked at some of the early scenes, but the human who ends up being presented is never worse than those around him, but he's most certainly human, and it may become the argument some day that this is Charyn's best and most important work. He's never become a popular writer, so perhaps it's appropriate that he may end up tricking people into loving him with this effort. Like all his characters, Charyn could always use a fortuitous change of fortune. He's in some ways the American Charles Dickens. This book will help explain that.

[Michelle Stockard Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jerome Charyn can always be counted on to put forth an interesting and entertaining work of historical fiction. Like its predecessors, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson and Johnny One-Eye, Charyn takes a novel told in first person to a whole new level. His first person point of view makes the reader feel as if they are the character...seeing and experiencing everything vicariously.

Abraham Lincoln is a historical figure that I have always greatly admired. In I Am Abraham, the man comes to life. He is not just the illusive and enigmatic figure of history, but a real, flesh-and-blood man with the same fears, worries and loves as other human beings. His stoic nature is ever present and yet he speaks with a sense of irony, seeing situations with an eye for the comedy amidst the ordinary and even tragic.

I am a fan of Jerome Charyn and always look forward to his latest work. His is a unique and important voice in the historical fiction genre. If you have not read his books, you're missing out. I Am Abraham would be a good one with which to start.

[Mary Narkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to Kindle, I have read 22% of the book. Very vivid poetic imaginative prose, the first chapter ends so poignantly with the sting of the bullet as it strikes Pres. Lincoln's head.

I decided I'd rather read nice paper books rather than books on Kindle or E reader.. It's more dreamy to be able to flip pages back and forth , finding things, checking back.. But I have read a few books on Kindle.. Somehow it doesn't have the same impact.. I might need to get a copy of this book ..as a real book!

And now I do have a real copy of the book (thank you , Lenore!)..

such vivid, poetic prose. Sweeps one along swiftly and one becomes involved intensely in the story and action.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘I Am Abraham,’ by Jerome Charyn
By Richard Brookhiser FEB. 21, 2014

No president has written as well as Abraham Lincoln. He could thrill, reason, prophesy, mourn and crack jokes. Who wouldn’t want to read a book in his own words — all the more enticing if it scanted the political and administrative minutiae that fill his collected works and gave us a window into his inner life?

Even if Lincoln hadn’t been murdered, he would never have written such a book. For an often garrulous man, he was notoriously tight-lipped about anything he didn’t want to say in a proclamation or from a podium. Biographers and historians have labored to fill the gaps. Jerome Charyn takes the approach of fiction.

“I Am Abraham” is an interior monologue, with Lincoln surveying his own life. Charyn’s novel follows the course of known events from 1831, when Lincoln left his father and stepmother and struck out on his own, until April 1865, when he visited Richmond, Va., conquered capital of the Confederacy. Only one character of any consequence — a female Pinkerton agent — is entirely invented, and Charyn assures us in an author’s note that Pinkerton did use women agents.
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Charyn’s best touch is Lincoln’s voice: thoughtful, observant and droll, good for the long narrative haul. Its ground bass is Kentucky rube. Lincoln says “the-ay-ter” and seems amused that he continues to say so even though he has become president of the United States. He varies this tone with echoes of the Bible, poetry and speeches from the the-ay-ter. (He describes his wife, Mary, retreating after one of their fights “into her bedroom in the crepe of a demented queen.”)

Readers may be surprised by how lewd this Lincoln can be. Do you want a recollection of the first time he felt a woman’s breasts? Of the first time he had intercourse? It’s all here. But the historical Lincoln’s arsenal of jokes did include obscene ones. Readers may also be struck by how lurid early-19th-century America seems through his eyes. His description of the Clary’s Grove Boys, a posse of toughs who confronted, then befriended him after he first moved to Illinois, reads like Midwest magic realism. “Their eyes were painted black, their noses masked with bits of red cloth, making them look sinister as ghouls; they had spikes in their arms and straw hats with missing crowns and rough, rawhide boots; their single ornament was a neckerchief with yellow polka dots that flashed in the sun and could be observed a quarter-mile away.”


Charyn’s Lincoln is a man of sorrows. Presiding over the Civil War would do that to anybody, but here the sorrows are traced back to an unsympathetic father and to the death of Ann Rutledge, his first sweetheart. Today we would call Lincoln depressed and give him pills. The man himself calls his bouts of gloom “unholies” and “the hypo” (from hypochondriasis) and just tries to ride them out.
Some famous men appear in this Lincoln’s thoughts — Stephen Douglas, George McClellan, Ulysses Grant — but the main figures in “I Am Abraham” are family. Mary Lincoln is the Kentucky belle who charms and arouses him even after her fragile personality develops irreparable cracks. His eldest son, Robert, understands his mother and soothes her, but wants her committed. His youngest son, Tad, is an undisciplined imp who has a speech impediment, yet alone of the family accompanies his father in the book’s final set piece, the apocalyptic visit to Richmond.

What’s missing? Lincoln seems to think hardly at all about his writing. If that were true, then he would have been the first and only writer in history to do so. Still less credible is the near absence of politics. Charyn presents Lincoln as stumbling into high office, guided by handlers and prodded by Mary. Yet William Herndon, his law partner, testified that his ambition was “a little engine that knew no rest.” Politicians are even more absorbed in their work than writers, recalling every hand they’ve shaken, every back they’ve stabbed. A real transcript of Lincoln’s thoughts would read a lot like Machiavelli (if he were moral) or the Sunday morning talk shows (if they were intelligent).

Where, finally, is God? Lincoln thought about him, off and on, all his adult life, more and more as the war ground on. A month before Charyn’s conclusion, he delivered an Inaugural Address that was indistinguishable from a sermon. But God is pretty much M.I.A. here. Charyn’s Lincoln, like the historical one, does feel the depth of the wound slavery leaves on America. Next year, the first black president will preside over the sesquicentennial of the end of the Civil War, yet demagogues, policy nerds and idealists still pick at the scab of race. It is our national “hypo.”

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Thoughts:
I've always had a fondness for Abraham Lincoln because we share the same birth date, February 12. I'm proud to tell people I was born on Abraham Lincoln's birth date. It's odd that I've never read a non-fiction book on Lincoln. A historical figure that I admire so much, you would think I'd read a biography of his life. I have read another historical fiction book on Abraham Lincoln: The Lincoln Conspiracy by Timothy O'Brien. The theme of this book is in solving Lincoln's murder.
In historical fiction, an author takes non-fiction material and creates a character to entertain readers. It is the added information an author adds that can cause problems to history purists. I make this statement, because I'm reviewing I Am Abraham, with minimal previous knowledge of Abraham Lincoln.
I'm appreciative of the author for including his feelings on writing the story, in regards to research, intentions, goals, and creative additions.
There are several points I love about the story:
A dimensional Abraham Lincoln. Jerome Charyn covered every side of Lincoln's persona and life: politics, love of reading, childhood, unresolved feelings of inadequacy, depression, love interests, marriage, role as father, the affect of Mary's mental illness, death of children, torn feelings of the Civil War, and conflicts in his relationships.
Abraham Lincoln is neither seen as a completely positive person, nor a completely negative person. He is real. He is human. His strengths and weaknesses are displayed.
I love love love colloquialisms. Throughout the story common sayings-Kentuckian words are used. For example: natter, bawdyhouse, et an apple, foolscap, pilferers, coffin-bed, skedaddle, and highfalutin.
I did not know Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression. It is well-known Mary Lincoln had mental health issues. Living through childhood trauma, living with Mary Lincoln, decisions of the Civil War, and the death of a child, easily caused him sadness and depression. Lincoln persevered through periods of profound sadness. Now when I look at his picture, I see the sadness in his face, the sadness in his eyes.
Early in the story I noticed the writing style. It began a quick pace, reminding me of Lincoln's tall walking stride (he was 6' 4.) Later in the story the pace slowed, reminding me of Lincoln's haggardness.
Symbolism. It has been remarked of the scene at the end of the story. I found symbolism at the beginning, mid-point, and ending. One of my favorite spots happened on page 228. "I let her wander away, the skirts of her gown gliding against the oilcloth with a strange whish while I stayed there, in the dumps. Tad's kitten leapt onto my lap. Tabby commenced to tear at my sleeve, and pretty soon it had a tiny batch of thread in its paw-I could feel that little cat unravel me. I stuffed him in my pocket, while I was raveling out somewhere on some private moon."
There were two aspects I did not like.
I'm aware Abraham and Mary had sex at least four times because they had four sons. But it was difficult for me, or awkward, to read of Abraham lusting after Mary's nipples, or other body parts. Yes, I had pre-set ideas of what President Lincoln was like, but a sex symbol was not one of them. I know this is my hang-up. Other readers have not commented on this point.
The ending does not stop at the "period" of Abraham Lincoln's life, but at a point before. It is a significant place to stop the story, but I wanted it to go a little farther. It's possible I did not want the story to even end.

I was prepared to give a 4 star review. But this book has stayed with me over the coarse of several days after reading it. I've even dreamed about the book. Abraham Lincoln has come to life again in the pages of Charyn's book. I can easily picture Lincoln walking with his top hat. Because the book has continued to "haunt-me." I have raised to review to 5 stars for excellent (which is not perfect, but near perfect.)

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I want to start by saying that I have had an interest in Lincoln since I was a kid. So I am always interested in reading/watching anything I can about the man.

I was at Ford's on April 14th this year. I saw this book in the gift shop. It seemed that this was selling the best. It sounded like it might be interesting. So I checked it out from the library as soon as I got home.

I felt so-so about the beginning. I thought it would get better. Then I began the actual novel...

The first part of this book, essentially, portrays adult Lincoln as if he is some sort of horny teenager. What was the point to that? I'm not a prude. Sex doesn't bother me unless it is pointless, and it was pointless in this novel. If he wanted to mention his attraction to Ann Rutledge, OK. If he wanted to fictionalize Lincoln's wedding night, fine. Neither of which I thought was necessary, though. But the rest of it was ridiculous. I'm not stupid. Lincoln was a man. He had 4 kids. Sex was in his life. Also, he always gave me the impression he'd be the sort of man who'd like a little bawdiness now and then. But with the WORDS that he had Lincoln "speak" while mentioning something sexual, they made Abraham Lincoln come across as a joke. All this did was just give me the impression that this was just the author's sexual fantasies about Lincoln's sexual fantasies. If a person needs to fill up pages with that kind of pointless writing, then he/she is not a very creative writer to begin with.

After I finished it, I wondered why it bothered me so much that he felt it was necessary to write any of that. And then it hit me. Abraham Lincoln wasn't some sort of concoction formed in the author's mind. He was a REAL person. He was a human being. And I find it very disrespectful to take something as personal as someone's sex life and write about it as if you know what really happened. It isn't that I dislike the fact that he wrote these things with Lincoln in mind. I couldn't care less what really happened in Lincoln's personal life. What I care about is the fact that it was his PERSONAL life that he was writing about. And I don't care if it would be Lincoln or anyone else from the past. I get historical fiction. I get that the author imagines the dialogue and situations. But when it comes to something so personal, I don't think anyone has the right to do it. How could a person really know what was going on in those situations? And it is disrespectful to "create" that part of a person's life just to make the story juicier.

As for the rest of the book, I thought it was horribly dull and boring. I could only take so much of the dialogue in there. And I had NO interest in the other figures in the book. Actually, I didn't even really like Lincoln all that much. But what did I expect when I was reading a book written by a man who admitted that he never liked Lincoln until he found out that he experienced depression and was married to a woman who wasn't a very stable person? Why would your opinion change about a person because of that?

Bill O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln was a masterpiece compared to this drivel.

It is beyond me how anyone could find this to be even remotely enjoyable. I think he just tried too hard to be creative. And I ended up reading a book that I felt was a waste of time. Yet again, this is why I am thankful for libraries. If I'd spent the money on this, I don't know how I would've ever been able to forgive myself.

[Lissette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abraham Lincoln's life has never been an ordinary one. From the moment, he could walk, he's done his best to assert himself. He's never been satisfied with lot he's been dealt, and is always seeking something greater. So much so, that when the moment came for him to leave his life at home behind, he fled and never looked back.

Forced to confront his inner demons, Abraham comes to the realization that no matter he does, the depression he feels will always hound him. He knows he needs to let it go, but it's so hard to do when the darkness insists on claiming him. Determined to make the most of the situations he finds himself in, he continues on, never imagining the path his life would take.

Climbing through the ranks of the Union army, Abraham's life takes an unexpected turn when he becomes the President of the United States. This new task at hand is daunting, but he's determined to fulfill his duties, no matter the cost. The well-being of the country and its people must be sustained, and he'll do everything to make sure no one comes to harm. Granted, when it comes to war, death and loss is inevitable.

Putting up with harried cabinet members, the hounding press, and others who seek to fill his own shoes, Abraham comes to the realization that no matter what he does, people will never be satisfied. Still, he refuses to bend to anyone's will but his own. After all, he has his own family to take care of. If he can't do it, no one else will.

For kin and country, he vows to make the world a better place, never once imagining just how much things will change. If he's to succeed in righting all wrongs, he'll need to let go of the ghosts of his past. Though that's easier said than done, he'll try his best in doing so. The United States must be protected and given her due. Only then, can she and those under his rule prosper in the long run.

A bittersweet tale, Jerome Charyn gives us a unique look into Abraham Lincoln's life. We get to see a thought-provoking and melancholic side of a man who did everything possible to bring the United States and its people together in so many ways. Abraham Lincoln fought for so much, and achieved such greatness, that he's remembered for his goodness. Yes, he had his demons, and there were times when he thought he couldn't go on, but he persevered. He did his best to fulfill every one of his duties and then some.

I've always been fascinated by Abraham's life and tenure as president. His end was definitely tragic, but his work and efforts are always remembered. Who knows where we'd be now if he hadn't done when he'd done back in the day. A truly fascinating tale, I Am Abraham is a story anyone will enjoy. I truly recommend reading it.

[Cheryl Malandrinos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel's prologue opens with a meeting between President Lincoln and his oldest son, Robert, after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, and swiftly moves to Lincoln's assassination. The book then travels back to 1831 and the years Lincoln spent in New Salem, taking on a slow, steady pace through the years as Lincoln becomes a lawyer, weds Mary Todd, and is elected President of the United States. More than half the book is dedicated to those years the country was at war.

I Am Abraham is not, however, a typical story about Lincoln. Using Lincoln's own letters and speeches, Charyn portrays a complex man who is besieged on all sides. Whether being hired out by his father, manipulated for political reasons, or trying to manage his child-wife, pressures often bring about the "blue unholies," like he first suffered after the death of Ann Rutledge. This is Lincoln brought to life like never before.

Though some of the language in the earlier chapters caused reservations, in the end, I must admit this is the most riveting, intimate, and compassionate portrayal of Lincoln I've ever had the pleasure to read. The extensive research Charyn must have performed is evident in the rich descriptions and plentiful details that add so much to this story. Lincoln's visit with his son, Tad, to war-shattered Richmond only days before his assassination is so vividly portrayed, I could see it in my mind, almost smell the charred ruins of the city and the death that surrounded them.

Charyn is a masterful storyteller, bringing Lincoln's voice to a deeply personal story of the man who led this country during some of its darkest days. I highly recommend I Am Abraham.

[Lenore Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well once again Jerome gives a voice to one who can not share on his own. Reaching in and extracting the deep depression that plagued Lincoln then balancing this with the deep need to share with the love of Abe's life, Mary, this story is as deep as the crevices on his face. You see the ghost that taunt the President as well as his wife. Having lost children, tormented by the war that felt unending and turned into pawns by the political system, these two would cling to each other than break apart to roam the halls of the White House. I loved feeling this confusion while seeing that what is good and true coming through by this leader. Jerome Charyn winds us through Lincoln's accomplishments with a personal voice, a voice with a timbre of reality.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

For me, this book was a waste of time, until I finally just stopped reading it. I know that every president, including Abraham Lincoln, is human and not always a moral or political paragon. But the treatment here is disturbing and frankly, disgusting. Did not like.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

1-star and 5-star. Very good and very bad.

5-star for making some details of this time period come alive in ways that most authors are not even aware of. You feel the surroundings, the politics, the agony and fear, and even the heart of Lincoln. Even though some details may seem crude, they make you see the individual suffering rather than general details about suffering. Yes, soldiers because of disease, lack of accommodation, fear and the automatic release of the bowels at death, did "shit" in their pants. But when a disabled veteran makes replica dolls for sale, his are much more in demand because he carves these features into his creations, missing limbs, disfigured faces, scars and open sores, and dirty pants. The reader does not as easily forget details like this in the way in which the author describes them. And this is his approach to all details, whether at White House balls, slave quarters and cages, battlefields, family relationships, the press, etc. What he describes, he describes well.

I have been to all the sites and battlegrounds named in this book and many others. For example, I have visited the cemetery where Stonewall Jackson's amputated left arm is buried, I have seen the Hunley (Confederate combat submarine found by Clive Cussler), I have been to Harper's Ferry (abolitionist John Brown) and Fort Sumter, the Old Slave Mart at Charleston, the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, and the Black History Museum in Cincinnati, just to let you know that I am not uninformed about this time period in American history. I have read many books about the Civil War and Lincoln.

We know that Mary Todd Lincoln had severe mental illness, probably undiagnosable at that time period. But Charyn brings to life the effect of her mental illness on herself, her family, her husband's political career, her employees, and even American history. The details of her behavior are amazingly well described. We can see her actions, we can feel the torment of her mind and her irrational thoughts.

We know that Lincoln also suffered from serious incapacitating mental depression. Although many historians tend to minimize or omit this, it is a factor in Lincoln's life and his effect on the United States. This is personal opinion, but I feel that because of the author's personal struggles with depression, he has made me understand this facet of Lincoln like no other author has.

Charyn is also one of a very few authors who is willing to record how Lincoln did not fight the Civil War to stop slavery. Stopping slavery became a necessity in order to win the war. He needed to break the economic power of the Confederacy. He quotes Lincoln's letter in which he says that his desire is to preserve the Union. If keeping slavery will preserve the Union, he is for it. If removing slavery will preserve the Union, he is for it. If keeping some slave states and some free states will preserve the Union, he is for it. I remember being in shock when I saw this quotation engraved in stone on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial. I stopped and read it several times, determined to check this detail. I naively had believed that the Civil War was fought to stop slavery. As a Canadian, I perhaps did not have as good an understanding of American history as many Americans. I later learned that there were many economic reasons for the South wishing to secede and I no longer laughed as hard at Granny's (Beverly Hillbillies) description of the Civil War as the war of Northern Aggression.

I am against slavery; I am thankful that slavery was ended, even if it took a horrible war. But fact is fact; even though I greatly admire Lincoln, and realize that only a very skillful politician could have walked the tightrope that he walked to preserve the Union, and that he abhorred slavery, Lincoln did not begin a war to stop slavery. I am also of the opinion that divorce is sometimes necessary in a union in which one party takes advantage of another. (no personal bias here, happily married for 44 years). I am not of the opinion that political relationships must be maintained forever. So whether I agree with the reasoning behind the Civil War, I still maintain that countries should be able to secede from agreements that no longer work. We experienced this in Canada in 1995 when Quebec almost voted in a referendum to secede from Canada. So I am not naive when I make this comment. I am against slavery, I am grateful for Lincoln, but I am also against a war fought to force the South to remain in the United States. To me, it is like using weapons and threats of death to force a woman (or man) to remain in a bad marriage so that a bad economic agreement to her disadvantage can remain in place.

I do not think it is morally correct for one generation to make "eternal" agreements that bind future generations, whether it is unconscionable future debt repayments or political unions. The present generations should be able to make decisions for their generation. I still believe that the South (and the North) had the right to secede and that the North should not have entered the war unless there could never be the possibility of a negotiated agreement to divide assets paid for by the federal government but located in the new smaller North and South. The irony to me is that the Americans did not question the right of the 13 Colonies to leave their relationship with Britain but did question the right of the South to secede from the United States. Was it wrong for Britain to fight to retain the 13 Colonies? Most Americans would say it was. Then why was it not wrong for the North to fight to retain the Union? Just a comment.

But Charyn does not make Lincoln a military or political hero. He shows him to be a person of sensitivity and morals and a politician who knows how to give and take in order to achieve the goals of the Union. And he tells us that Lincoln would take whatever stand on slavery was necessary to preserve the Union. Had Lincoln kept slavery in order to preserve the Union, he would not have been considered the hero he is today. I think this is an important effect of this book. It removes the aura of Lincoln as being responsible for freeing the slaves. (Yes, I know about the Emancipation Proclamation but read about why he signed it...) There is a difference between motive and effect. If I jump out of the way of a runaway bus to save my life, and as a result, inadvertently save the life of a child, am I a hero? If I say that if I need to push the child in front of the bus to save me, or push the child away to save me, or just push the child enough to save his life but not injury, am I a hero? This is what Lincoln wrote.

Lincoln abhorred slavery. He would have tried to stop it legally. But I don't think he would have fought the Civil War to end slavery. Slavery was already on its way out as an over-expensive institution because of mechanization of the cotton harvest and because of the abolitionist movement. Perhaps if he had waited a few years, there would have been enough political power to end slavery without war. Just a comment, but I am trying to show you how this book does have a good historical background of the basics and it does get the reader to consider some facets of Lincoln's life which are generally omitted.

But I still give the book 1 star for what he leaves out... and what he puts in.

What he leaves out are sometimes serious gaps where a reader who does not know much about this time period will be left perplexed. I can fill in the details but most people cannot. For example, even in the prologue, you need to read between the lines to realize that Lincoln has been assassinated. I have stood in Ford's Theater and Petersen House where he was shot and where he died. Of course, readers will already realize they are reading about his assassination. But there are other examples in the book where the author jumps to the signing of a document without enough political background to understand what is going on, or jumps ahead to a battle in the same way. I was disappointed that the book ended at Richmond and not Appomattox. Perhaps this does not seem significant to most readers, but Lee surrendered at Appomattox on April 10 (formal ceremony April 12); Lincoln was assassinated on April 14. I think the surrender ceremony at Appomattox would have been as significant or even more significant to Lincoln as the fall of Richmond. The book just ended too close to the end...

It omitted the fact that the election of a Northern president (whether Lincoln or not) was enough to cause the first secession even before his inauguration. Not enough detail is given to understand that as the Union increased in size, slave and free states were admitted together to keep the balance of power so that slavery could continue. Court decisions nullified the right of states to refuse to accept federally made laws that were outside the legal jurisdiction of Washington. So states' rights could be overruled by the federal government, constitution be d---ed. This was probably more fearsome to the states than the possibility of losing slavery, being controlled by the federal government on one issue or on every issue forever. Lincoln could have possibly stopped this by insisting that the constitution be followed.

Also a 1-star for what the author puts in. Yes, I know this is an historical novel. But it is an historical novel about a real person. As a result, I think that where certain incidents are created to give us some perspective about Lincoln, they should be based on facts along with footnotes. For example, the references to Lincoln's crude talks and jokes (enough historical records of this exist), his sexual thoughts and behaviors (enough crudeness here to think less of Lincoln except for the fact that there are no footnotes and I tend to think this is a figment of Charyn's imagination), his wife's and his unaccompanied visits to the wounded, her appearance during mental episodes naked, his serendipitous appearance in many situations in which he could be a rescuer all are undocumented. Yes, he can write what he wants in an historical novel, but when using real names of real people, then I feel that he has an obligation to provide footnotes to show that he is simply creating an imaginary event which is still based on actual records.

So my overall one-sentence impression of this book is that this book lacks credibility because the reader is left to determine which parts accurately portray Lincoln and which seriously misrepresent him. Simply put, I do not trust the author.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Sandie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jerome Charyn has written a compelling novel about the life of Abraham Lincoln. Rather than just reciting a series of dry facts, the story comes alive through the mechanism of a first person narrator, Abraham himself. The book covers the period from Lincoln's life starting out as a young man to the end of his life.

Abraham had nothing with which to make his way except his own willingness to work and scrap by. He fought as a young man to get an education, thwarted whenever possible by his father. He makes his living however he can with various occupations moving towards the occupation of being a lawyer and a circuit judge. His poverty means that he is not accepted in the higher circles of society and that suits him just fine, as he is uncomfortable around such people and their lives. He goes to parties and dinners occasionally, and meets Mary Todd. Against the objections of her family, he woos and wins her; their marriage blessed with four sons.

As he moves into politics, Lincoln finds his issue. He rails against slavery leading to the creation of the Republican party. When he is elected President it is not a popular move with the Southern states who promptly succeed, leaving Lincoln to start his Presidency with the biggest, most divisive war in the country's history.

Lincoln remained an outsider. Although Mary craves social prestige, Lincoln is never comfortable in society functions. He has to fight not only those states openly against him, but several of his generals who think they could lead the country more effectively. One, General McClellan, is the darling of the social scene, but Lincoln is the man who can move the war forward, even as the actions he must take eat away at him.

There is little solace at home. Mary, always headstrong, moves further and further into an alternate world with the loss of two of their sons to illness over the years. She vainly attempts to be a social leader but is only tolerated by society and an easy prey to those who would use her station to further their own plans. Lincoln is loyal to her even as she attempts to undermine him.

But it is the war that consumes him. He hates the carnage, the necessity for actions that eat at his soul. The need for generals like Grant who are killers rather than just military strategists. The necessity of starving the Southern populace and unleashing men like Sherman on them. The Friday shooting squads who make an example of deserters, many only boys no older than his own sons. But he must do whatever it takes to win the war because he believes that slavery is the ultimate evil that will destroy the nation he loves.

This is a towering work. The reader gets an intimate view of Lincoln different from the storybook tales that are told in history classes. He emerges as a tortured man who found the backbone and willpower to push the nation forward to a new way where one man does not own another. Of course Lincoln paid the ultimate price for his vision and his efforts to forge a country united and free of slavery. This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction and for those curious about the man behind the legends.

[Mike Cuthbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jerome Charyn starts his novel of the Civil War at Ford’s Theatre in April of 1865. It ends in Richmond, a few days before the theatre engagement. He also chose to write it in first person so the title is logical and apt: I Am Abraham. It is a historical novel with a few added characters for plot and body but his profiles of the real characters—Mary Todd, Elizabeth Keckly, Grant and especially McClellan—are spot on and effective. Like me, Lincoln didn’t trust nor like George McClellan for appropriate reasons, primarily those surrounding Little Mac’s distaste for fighting though he loved the ceremony and privileges war brought him. He tried to make his ineptitude in fighting an asset in his run for president in 1864 but, as Charyn delicately portrays it, his alleged core voter, the Union soldier, abandoned him in his desire to end the war and win it. It was as if those soldiers realized in a very short period of time that McClellan’s popularity was costing more lives by extending the war unnecessarily. Charyn’s other effective portrait is of the distracted Mary Todd. With the death of her second son, Willie, she turned even more to Robert, the oldest Lincoln boy, but her concern for his safety nearly destroyed him by emasculating him and smothering him with protection. And Charyn nicely handles the problems of the “blue unholies,” those periods of depression filled with fantasies and bad dreams and despair that haunted Lincoln through most of his life, starting with the death of Anne Rutledge in his youth. As we learn in the postscript to the novel, those periods were not unknown to Charyn himself so it is no surprise that he struggles with them in his novel. There is little of the actual battlefield in the novel; most of the action takes place after major battles, when Lincoln is touring the carnage-strewn sites of inhumanity and tragic accident that are the detritus of war. As I have been struck before upon reading about Lincoln, it is in so many ways remarkable that he made it to Ford’s Theatre and the “sting behind my left ear” that was his last sensation on earth. With spies, assassins, armed troops and startlingly little effective protection of him even before he was inaugurated for the first time, disaster loomed around every corner, if not in his mind. Lincoln remains, for most of us, a mysterious, almost mystical figure. By writing in Lincoln’s language, if not always with Lincoln’s eloquence, Charyn does a great job of re-creating another piece of the character of this most remarkable of men and his somewhat bizarre family. There is little of Lincoln we can identify with in contemporary American life. He has long since passed into the inadequate air of legend but Charyn makes a great attempt to make him real to us and to justify the belief that not only would we like the man, but that we might, given enough time with him, come to understand him and the devils he defeated as well as the devils that killed him.

[Beverly McClure · Rating 5 out of 5]

The president of the United States presents a certain image, an image that does not always tell the people the whole story of the man. When we read each of the president’s stories, we discover that they have many of the same problems other people have. They make mistakes; they face challenges and sometime win, sometimes lose. Author Jerome Charyn’s novel, I AM ABRAHAM, A NOVEL OF LINCOLN AND THE CIVIL WAR, paints a picture of Abraham Lincoln, a man with faults and doubts about his own abilities, but who nevertheless became President of the United States of America.

Using characters that really existed, along with fictional characters, Jerome Charyn gives us a vision of Abe Lincoln the man, husband, father, and president. The book is divided into sections with dates, locations, seasons, and other helpful information to help us follow the timeline of the story. Lincoln was a modest man. He worked at odd jobs such as mending pickets and building caskets, to name a few. He dealt with the death of two of his four sons and a spunky wife determined he would be president. His presidency was during a tumultuous time in our country, when citizens were taking sides. Lincoln could not escape the war, the odor of rotting carcasses, the loss of lives, the horror of what was happening to the country. And he was helpless to stop it.


Abraham Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents. The Civil War is one of my favorite eras of history. I was so excited to get to read this novel and I was not disappointed. Jerome Charyn describes each scene so vividly I almost felt as if I were there, seeing the prisoners with their wounds, experiencing the hopelessness of their situation along with them, and watching Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd, grieve for her sons as she lost herself. Most of all, I see Lincoln a bit differently than I once did because the novel I AM ABRAHAM portrays the whole man Lincoln, rather than mostly his presidential years. This book would make a great addition to high school and university libraries and classrooms. It’s also an inspiring story for people who perhaps have few advantages in life to see that it’s possible they can achieve their goals. I highly recommend this novel for history lovers, teachers, and everyone interested in a good read.
I was provided an ARC of this book for my honest review.
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[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some things I absolutely loved about this book. First, I love how the prologue ends with Lincoln being shot at Ford's Theater, and then chapter one opens with his rescue from near-drowning in the Sangamon River when he was a young man. It felt like he came unstuck in time and, at the moment of his death, reappeared alive-but-near-death in the river. Second, I loved how some of the scenes from Lincoln's life are given a mythic quality, not mythic in the way of the American Myth of the logsplittler, but mythic almost in a magical-realism way, just a little larger than life.
And I like that the author chose to focus on Lincoln's inner life and family life, not the big historical stuff that we already know about. I can't complain about an author trying to humanize a historical figure; that is exactly what I did in my own novel about Saint Augustine. But.... I felt like Charyn cut Lincoln down to size a little TOO much. He focuses a lot on Lincoln's depression and his humility and self-doubt, to the point that it doesn't seem realistic that this man could have effectively led a nation to victory in a brutal, heart-breaking war. Rather than being given a fuller picture of Lincoln, we get almost the anti-Lincoln. There is little trace of the savvy politician, the wise, compassionate leader, the Emancipator. We are left with a man who is simply harrassed: by his political rivals, by his emotionally unstable wife, by tragedy upon tragedy. We don't see him rise to any of this and become the Great Man of history; he just endures it and comes off as kind of pitiful.

[Clarissa Simmens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an unrecognizable Washington, DC. There is no resemblance to the pilgrimage we US students take by senior year in high school. Like Abraham Lincoln, Jerome Charyn is also a “prose poet” and has described a period of history that would have been surrealistic to modern people, at best. There is nothing more I can say. One needs to experience the story, so I will give you the author’s words and hope that you feel the powerful scenes, see the anguish of Lincoln, and decide to read and enjoy the entire book. Here are Lincoln’s thoughts while visiting Richmond after Jefferson Davis fled his “White House” and the city was burned: “And they disappeared into their own dust storm, perfunctory and supernatural at the same time. I wanted to stick within their spell, to remain with these riders, whoever they were. But I didn’t have their sabers or their sass—I hadn’t rounded up stragglers and dumped them into a corner of Libby Hotel, hadn’t cleared all the slave pens, hadn’t charged up and down the hills of this hellhole like avenging angels, with three buglers riding the same horse. I was just a flimflammer from the North, with one boy at my side and another boy with Grant—husband, father, and President, worried about my wife.”

[Jack Buechner · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the Adventures of Teddy Roosevelt, The Cowboy King I literally tore into Charyn's earlier piece I Am Abraham. To say I was off-put by learning about Abes various terms for male and female genitalia not to mention his semen (jelly) it was a stretch too far to have this log-splitter, an obviously hirsute and muscular frontiersman, portrayed in such a sophomoric manner . His days as an Indian-fighter, state legislator and then candidate are treated in a most sarcastic and historically mangled fashion. I know that Charyn is lauded for his style of sanding down his characters but I believe he misses the mark Here. As an Indian fighter against Pontiac he obviously experienced the real persona of Pontiac and those paragraphs were insightful. Finally the story of Mary Todd in both courting and marriage is a much gentle assessment than most historical chroniclers have given her. All in all I would say this is closer to a TWO Star than a 4 STAR.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to know what life was like on the Illinois frontier in the 1830s, Washington street life during the Civil War, the city of Richmond immediately after its fall? How about life as a president, husband of a scheming, self-centered wife with a feeble grasp of reality and father of three trying children? Charyn's prose is commanding of detail and nuance. I Am Abraham is a rich, rich, rich description of of life at the micro level. Maybe Mr. Charyn could try his hand at a fictionalized account of LBJ, another American whose life would fill a canvas.

[Nance · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's no sympathy here for the Lincoln's. The President is portrayed as a blundering, ineffectual husband and father. An even harsher light is shown on Mrs. Lincoln. I came away from this reading with the feeling that I'd peeked into the Lincoln's private lives, somewhere I wasn't invited. Perhaps Mr. Charyn's first line in his acknowledgements explains this "I never liked Lincoln". In spite of the new affinity he finds with Lincoln via their shared "hypos", I don't think he likes Lincoln (or Mrs. Lincoln) any better than he ever did.

[mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like only certain historical fiction and this is one of those books. I like the voice of Abraham. It does linger on the facts we know but the background around those fact I like this Abraham and his family. The idealization that comes after death or great events takes away from their humanity and this allows you that privilege.

[Gerald Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting and very different

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is why I dislike novels. I read the book because of an avid interested in President Lincoln, but I disliked the author & so much of what he included & made up, was unnecessary.

[Jenny Q]

Q&A with Jerome Cheryn + Giveaway @ Let Them Read Books!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

best I've read!