To the Bramble and the Briar

To the Bramble and the Briar is a magical biography that renders the development of Abraham Lincolns vision in all of its clumsiness and beauty. We see Lincoln as unromanticized, deeply humanwhether reading Shakespeare out loud at the bottom of a well or sitting with a bucket over his head after Bull Run. We meet Frederick Douglass and Walt Whitman, as well as unnamed witnesses: a courtroom stenographer typing Lincolns words in Illinois; a teenage girl lifted out of slavery by a kite in the shape of a swordfish; and two anonymous workers charged with opening Lincolns grave. With young Tad Lincoln, we seeas a man is tarred and feathered, his two sons standing bythat One day the world ends / right in front of you. Especially poignantboth funny and filled with sorrowis the love story between Mary and Abraham, a husband who would come to his wifes room every night to kiss / at nine-thirty and then / at ten to undo her / some more.