Well, this seems like a nice little historical novel about....wait a second. Impeachment? Don't you mean "assassination"? What's going on here? This is the same Stephen Carter that brought the world well-regarded historical novels such as The Emperor of Ocean Park, no?In all fairness, if you knew nothing about American history, you might think this actually is an historical novel. Unlike other works of alternative history, Dr. Carter feels no need to introduce time travel, alien invaders, or even overt humor. He subscribes to the very "soft" side of the genre, where even big events ultimately do not rupture the timeline. In fact, aside from perhaps a couple big differences from our own history, it is likely this could have served as the history of our present reality.
The notion that had Lincoln survived the assassination attempt, he would have been impeached (and likely convicted) by the radical wing of the Republican party is not a new idea. However, it is still shocking to modern ears to think that one of the most well-regarded presidents in history could easily have ended up as one of the worst. It all hinges on how much one can believe that Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's successor who actually was impeached (and missed conviction by one vote), was just following Lincoln's Reconstruction plans for the South.
This is one of those books where it is important to read the afterword. The author goes through it exacting detail how he diverged his fictional world from the historical record. Even though I felt like I was on top of all the changes, he made many minute changes I wasn't aware of. Thankfully, this didn't distract from my enjoyment of the book in its own right. As I have noted in the past, I get easily annoyed with authors who change large events for the sake of making their books more interesting.
I picked up this copy from a branch of my local library system. It is readily available from numerous libraries. Find one near you by steering yourself over to Worldcat.
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