Share Email Print RSS

The Partly Cloudy Sarah Vowell

Sarah Vowell has a great laugh. It's smart and compassionate. It's curious and insightful. It's a kind laugh. Especially when she's talking about something really serious and kinda creepy.

You've probably heard Sarah Vowell's great laugh before.

She's a frequent contributor to "This American Life," the popular NPR show from Ira Glass (heard locally on 88.9FM WCVE Sundays at 10 a.m.). She's covered everything in her quirky, witty fashion from an obsession with the Godfather films to her father's homemade cannon. And then there's her books: "Take the Cannoli" and her latest bestseller, "The Partly Cloudy Patriot," which includes clever essays about nerds, Gettysburg as a vacation destination and a very funny number entitled "Tom Cruise Makes Me Nervous."

On Monday, March 3 , Sarah Vowell makes her first visit to the area when she stops by Randolph-Macon College in Ashland for a 50-minute reading and commentary followed by a question-and-answer period.

We called up Sarah Vowell in her New York apartment to find out about the obscure amputation tools she wants to check out in Richmond, to get schooled on why Gen-Xers don't know their history, and yes, especially to hear her great laugh. Richmond.com: Have you ever been to Richmond before?

Sarah Vowell: No. RC: Are you looking forward to it?

SV: Yeah. You know, I'm a Civil War buff. So Richmond obviously is the heart of the heart of the Confederacy. I'm hoping to have time to see ... [ chuckles ] I guess you have the tools which were used to amputate Stonewall Jackson's arms in the Museum of the Confederacy. I was hoping to see those. RC: Do you like to see those things so you can write about them?

SV: Not really. It's just a hobby of mine. Sometimes I end up writing about things later. Like last summer, my friend and I went to see Don Rickles in Atlantic City just for a lark. Now I'm writing about that today and I never intended to. So I was talking to him because I didn't take notes [ laughs ]. RC: Did you like his show?

SV: Oh, yeah. I love Don Rickles. RC: What are you writing about Don Rickles?

SV: Oh, you know ... weekend getaways. I'm not very fun. I don't really enjoy doing things that you're supposed to enjoy. Like I wouldn't want to sit in the sun on a beach somewhere. It's my idea of fun to see the tools that amputated Stonewall Jackson's arms [ smallest giggle ]. RC: When did you first get interested in history?

SV: My father and grandfather were big, long-winded history buffs. My family is part Cheorkee, and we lived in Oklahoma as a direct result of an act of history. We lived there because that's where the Trail of Tears ended. My dad and my grandfather always talked about history as something that our family had been a part of. Like the Civil War, I have a great-great-grandfather who was a Confederate myself. When you're a kid, you just roll your eyes and think, "Yes, I've heard that story before." But it does kind of seep in. That history isn't something that happens to other people, it's something that happens to us. RC: Do you think that's why Generation X-ers don't seem to know their history because they don't feel connected to it?

SV: I don't know if it's the generations. It's an American quality to be future-focused, to be rather amnesiac about the past. The whole point of America is the future. It's a very American quality to not care about American history. There are certainly advantages to that.

Look at what happened in the Balkans in the last decade [ sounds like a smile, I would not go so far to say a chortle ]. If you can say one nice thing about the Serbs, for example, it's that they really know their history and they really care about history -- to the extent that they're willing to continue a millennium-old feud in an entirely objectionable, horrible fashion. RC: You have such a huge, cult following now -- of your readers and NPR listeners -- how do you make history interesting to them?

SV: I guess the one thing I can offer people is a lack of pretense. I'm not an historian. A lot of times, the reader can learn about an historical event along with me as I'm learning. And I'm kind of irreverant; I like to joke around a lot -- whether it's appropriate or not [ a definite heh, nothing more ]. I try to be entertaining about things. A lot of history books I find very useful ... but not particularly fun-loving. I can be an interpreter of sorts for people. Like I will do the homework and I will read 19 books about Puritan history and convey the four things I feel like conveying out of those books. I just like stories really. And if you have enough good stories and a lack of self-importance that goes a long way. RC: Aside from Don Rickles, what are you working on lately?

SV: I'm working on a story for ... [ giggles ] an anti-death penalty CD. I'm writing a little story about the hanging tree in Washington Square Park, which is one of the oldest trees in New York City. And it's this really lovely, really tall tree on the edge of Washington Square Park. But it's where they used to hang people in the 18th century. Yeah. What can I say? It just sounds funnier when she says it. It's got to have something to do with the laugh. Find out for yourself when Sarah Vowell comes to Randolph-Macon on Monday, March 3.