The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln

May 14, 2012
Entering a season heavy with Lincolniana (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter hits movie theaters in June, followed by a Spielberg biopic starring Daniel Day-Lewis in December), Stephen L. Carter delivers a doorstop of alternate history speculating whether Congress would have impeached Lincoln for abuses of power during the Civil War if only he had survived Booth’s bullet. Alas, The Plot Against America this ain’t. This is Lincoln by way of Dan Brown, complete with ciphers and conspiracies and breathless escapes, only not so breathless, since Carter lacks Brown’s talent for narrative momentum. It takes nearly 60 pages for the first dead body to show up, and then nothing much happens for the next 60. The pace picks up in the much better second half, when Lincoln is finally on trial and the author (a Yale Law professor) gets to trot out some enjoyable courtroom shenanigans.

July 1, 2012
Law professor turned novelist Carter (The Emperor of Ocean Park, 2002, etc.) waxes counterfactual--and sometimes piles historical nonfacts to dizzying heights. Yes, the counterfactuals sometimes threaten to suffocate the real matters here; as Carter, who cheerfully admits to much invention, writes, "None of this was true, but all of it was in the newspapers." The overriding counterfactuality here concerns a historical chestnut: Honest Abe warred on the Constitution when he suspended habeas corpus and effectively put the Union under a state of martial law. The act earned him the label of tyrant in his time--and in Carter's pages, with pro-Confederate sympathizers and staunch Unionists alike rising up in protest. As Carter's tale opens, Lincoln has indeed been assassinated--almost. Shot on Good Friday, he rises from the near-dead on Easter Sunday, Christlike. "Across the country, people cheered," writes Carter, with much portent. "Those who felt otherwise kept their disappointment to themselves, content to bide their time." Those numerous disappointed types include more than a few traitors and insurrectionists, some deep within the bowels of a government still riven by the late unpleasantness of the Civil War. But who are the bad guys, and who mere celebrants of the First Amendment? Since Lincoln is alive and well in Carter's telling, it would be uncivil to ponder the implausibility of his choice of heroine, a young, fearless and brilliant African-American named Abigail Canner, who, fresh from Oberlin, is determined to expose the real engine driving the plot to turn the Great Emancipator out of office--and it's not all the doing of the juicily bad character called the Lion of Louisiana, either. Fans of secret codes will enjoy watching the mind of Abigail's legal-eagle sidekick at work, and Abigail herself makes for a grandly entertaining sleuth. A smart and engaging what-if that has the virtue of being plausible--and the added virtue of not having been written by Bill O'Reilly, so that the real facts are actually facts.

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February 1, 2012

There's trouble for President Abraham Lincoln in this imaginatively conceived alternate history. After he survives Booth's assassination attempt, he's accused of violating the Constitution in his conduct of the war and faces impeachment. His defense team includes a young black woman, just graduated from Oberlin, who's enjoying the opportunity to flummox purse-lipped Washington society until one of Lincoln's lead lawyers is murdered. History, mystery, and profound political questions from the author of the million-plus-copy best seller The Emperor of Ocean Park--who, of course, is also an esteemed professor at Yale Law School. With a five-city tour, plus a reading group guide.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2012
What if Abraham Lincoln had not been killed by John Wilkes Booth? What if he survived the assassination attempt and lived on to face the vociferous criticism of Republican Radicals and others in the aftermath of the Civil War? What if the criticism reached the level of a call for impeachment, charging Lincoln with planning to impose martial law on the nation's capital? Into such tumult steps Abigail Canner, a young, educated black woman challenging the conventions of the period, who goes to work as a clerk for the law firm defending Lincoln against impeachment. Among her compatriots are a taciturn partner unsure he wants to be involved in the impeachment, a rising young attorney engaged to marry into a prominent political family, and a peg-legged investigator who has been been acquitted of murdering his wife's lover. Their defense hinges on the mysterious disappearance of a list of conspirators against Lincoln. This novel has all the juicy stew of postCivil War Washington, with the complexities of race, class, and sex mixed in. Carter draws on historical documents and a vivid imagination to render a fascinating mix of murder mystery, political thriller, and courtroom drama. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The always provocative Carter, author of the million-plus-copy best-seller The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002) and a professor at Yale Law School, will embark on an author tour to promote his latest, an imaginatively conceived alternate history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

June 15, 2012

Yale professor Carter sets his fifth thriller (after Jericho's Fall) in an alternate past in which President Lincoln has survived John Wilkes Booth's assassination attempt. Two years later, in 1867, the Radical Republicans want the President out. They initiate impeachment proceedings, claiming he has abused his powers and threatened a military dictatorship. Lincoln's lawyers hire Abigail Canner, a young black graduate of Oberlin College, to clerk for them, then sideline her--she is just window dressing for their efforts. But events bring her front and center. Abigail is a wonderful creation; heedless of obstacles, she presses forward. There's an almost-love story, which works, and a puzzle to be solved and villains to be foiled--these work less well. VERDICT Carter writes in the naturalistic school of Theodore Dreiser. His strength lies in capturing the subtle nuances of social interaction between blacks and whites. If he ever crafts a novel that doesn't depend on a creaky thriller plot for its impetus, it should be a good one--he's a superb social observer. In the meantime, his latest is fun. Carter has many readers, and the topic will attract more. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/12.]--David Keymer. Modesto, CA

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.