Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

BOOTH by Karen Joy Fowler (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves) is a work of historical fiction that spans several decades in 1800s America. Beginning in 1822, the story focuses at first on the often absent, often drunk, and somewhat unhinged patriarch, Junius Brutus Booth.  He has run off from London, leaving behind a wife and young son. Instead, he travels to Baltimore with a mistress, Mary Ann Holmes, who eventually had ten children with him before they were married in 1851. These children, include the gentle, long-suffering Rosalie, future actors Edwin, Junius Jr., and John Wilkes, plus Asia, a writer. Fowler explores their lives prior to and after the assassination.  She cleverly weaves in parallels to today’s issues, particularly rights for women, racism, and “celebrity culture” in the 1800s. One is forced to wonder about the impact of such an unstable upbringing, alcoholism, and the elder Booth’s death when John Wilkes was only fourteen. Revealing both tragedy and triumph for this family, BOOTH received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly.