BOOTH by Karen Joy Fowler

Sometimes I find historical fiction to be well-researched but poorly written.  This novel, although overly long, is both well-researched and written well enough.  The focus is on the Booth family and their ten children, several of whom die young from smallpox and cholera.  John Wilkes is one of the youngest Booth children and adored by all, despite some pretty despicable behavior, long before he assassinates Lincoln.  His father is a renowned Shakespearean actor, often performing drunk, and several of his sons, including John, follow in his footsteps, as both an actor and a drunk.  Even their spinster sister has a drinking problem, although she seems able to keep hers hidden by mostly staying home with their mother.  Speaking of their mother, she is not even legally married to their father, who abandoned his first wife and son but cannot really shake them off.  Although the author tried not to make John Wilkes the centerpiece here, I could not help but look for him on every page, anticipating the horrendous act for which he is known.  This novel does provide some context but does not attempt to make him out to be a good guy who made a bad mistake.  On the contrary, in his warped mind, he is performing a service to the country.  I found it puzzling that John Wilkes was such a proponent of slavery, while all of the other members of his family disagreed with his stance but chose to overlook it.  The various members of his family play the blame game—blaming a brother for throwing John out of the house, blaming his co-conspirators, blaming themselves for not having seen it coming, blaming Lincoln for going to the theater.