To the Bramble and the Briar

To the Bramble and the Briar is a magical biography that renders the development of Abraham Lincoln's vision in all of its clumsiness and beauty. We see Lincoln as unromanticized, deeply human-whether 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 Lincoln's 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 Lincoln's grave. With young Tad Lincoln, we see-as a man is tarred and feathered, his two sons standing by-that 'One day the world ends / right in front of you.' Especially poignant-both funny and filled with sorrow-is the love story between Mary and Abraham, a husband who would come to his wife's room "every night to kiss / at nine-thirty and then / at ten to undo her / some more."