The title of Karen Joy Fowler’s latest novel is almost self-explanatory.  Generally, it’s a family saga wrapped in 19th century US social, political and economic history from 1822 to 1865 and beyond. John Wilkes Booth became the most famous member of the Booth family after he shot Abraham Lincoln while the the president was with his wife watching a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington DC.  This was only a few days after Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy had surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia. The dates were April 9th for the surrender and April 13 of 1865 for the shooting.     

Booth
By Karen Joy Fowler
2022 / 
Read by January LaVoy 13h 44m
Rating 9 / historical fiction – (US John Wilkes Booth)

Junius Booth and Mary Ann Holmes immigrated to Maryland from London in June 1822. There they had 10 children of which 6, 4 boys and 2 girls survived.  The males were talented Shakespearian actors who by diligence and hard work became prominent members of the American theater community. The females would likely have been great actors, too, but convention and family pride forbade that. And several of the bunch, including father, had serious drinking and other problems. They specialized in Shakespearian plays but sometimes performed other material. The family was quite well known in both the US and England.

Fowler uses abundant, available, and usually reliable historical resources to explore the characters and the times as well as how the family was affected by large political and economic events and how they were affected by and interacted with each other. 

Fowler says she did not want to make John Wilkes the centerpiece of her book – he’s famous enough for his vile deed.  But she wanted the focus to be on those he loved and who loved him.  What kind of family is someone like this from and what does this do to them afterwards?  His dad died in 1852, when John Wilkes was only 14 so the narrative consists of the voices of Mary Ann (the mother), and their children,  Junius Jr,  Rosalie, Edwin, Asia, John Wilkes, Joseph.   

John Wilkes had a lot of problems, but so did mother and siblings. They were all kind of infamous in US history for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14 of 1864, only 9 days after the South had surrendered in the Civil War.  The next morning John Wilkes died in a nearby boarding house where he’d been taken.  

John is not a major character.  Lincoln has more page space than John Wilkes.  The life of John Wilkes was difficult what with growing up in a very large theater family.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booth_family