![]() And, in doing so, slowly discovers that Schuyler himself is an unreliable narrator doing things he continually claims he will never do again and taken frequently to the heights of editorial excess. ![]() the reader finds himself in the same position. ![]() If Colonel Burr had indeed wanted to separate the western states from the east (as everyone believes), he would favour South Carolina’s Nullification Act. Recently South Carolina claimed that it had the “right” not only to nullify federal laws but also to dissolve, if challenged, its connection with the union. I, too, am a Jacksonian, and oppose nullification.” A clue. Leggett,” “tell him how much I admire his editorials on the subject of nullification. ![]() Just as Schuyler is constantly looking for clues that reveal the real Burr… It’s a frame in which our protagonist, Burr, can only be seen through the perspective of others, much, I think, like the historical person himself. Schuyler is a writer, hired first by Burr to help him compose his memoirs, then by a newspaperman named Leggett to simultaneously write a tell-all pamphlet, accusing presidential contender Martin Van Buren as being the illegitimate son of Burr. ![]() It’s a historical novel in which the protagonist is Aaron Burr, but told largely from the point of view of (I believe) the wholly fictional character of Charles Schuyler. This one took me some time to get my head around - assuming I ever really did. ![]()
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