Book Review - Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It? by David Rehak
Category Book Review David Rehak Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It?
I had this book on my Amazon wish list for quite awhile... Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It? by David Rehak. Not that I wanted someone to buy it for me, but I *did* want to read it some day. It wasn't until I discovered the InterLibrary Loan program that I was finally able to find a copy to check out. Now, was it worth the wait? Eh, so-so...
Rehak (an inadvertent name for an author researching an axe murder) is deep into "Bordenia", or those who collect and research the Lizzie Borden case. For those who don't remember or never read about it, Lizzie Borden was accused and acquitted of the murders of her mother and father in 1892. This brutal crime gave birth to the rhyme "Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks. And when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one." Aside from the fact that there were far fewer wounds that that, it was exceptionally horrific and bloody. Controversy has swirled ever since over whether she had actually committed the murders, or if someone else had snuck in, done the crimes, and then escaped unnoticed. Even to this day, there are strong arguments on both sides of the issue, and most people who follow the topic have very strong opinions one way or the other.
This particular book takes a slightly different tack than most, in that it doesn't seek to prove or disprove one side or the other. Instead, Rehak lays out the basic facts, evidence, and arguments for both sides so that the reader can get a true sense of the complexity of the case. And overall, he does a relatively good job at it. I found myself going between "of course she was innocent", and "she was *so* guilty" a number of times. As such, I enjoyed that part of the book quite a bit.
Where it fell down in my opinion, was with the editing and structure. This has the look and feel of a self-published book that lacked the hand of a solid editor. The book starts out solid when he sticks to the guilty/not guilty topics. But then he goes off on "Lizzie Shrines", locations Lizzie frequented during her life. The book loses a lot of momentum there. There is also a chapter on related Lizzie articles, fiction pieces, humor, and poetry. Again, perhaps interesting to the hard-core Bordeniac, but not too relevant as to whether or not she committed the crimes. By the time I got towards the end of the book, I was more than ready to be done and to move on to something else.
Those who have an interest in the Lizzie Borden case will get a good prosecution/defense sense of what was at stake. And people obsessed with Ms. Borden will love it. But for those of us who aren't immersed and have no wish to do so, you'll probably find yourself starting to skim in a number of places...
I had this book on my Amazon wish list for quite awhile... Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It? by David Rehak. Not that I wanted someone to buy it for me, but I *did* want to read it some day. It wasn't until I discovered the InterLibrary Loan program that I was finally able to find a copy to check out. Now, was it worth the wait? Eh, so-so...
Rehak (an inadvertent name for an author researching an axe murder) is deep into "Bordenia", or those who collect and research the Lizzie Borden case. For those who don't remember or never read about it, Lizzie Borden was accused and acquitted of the murders of her mother and father in 1892. This brutal crime gave birth to the rhyme "Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks. And when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one." Aside from the fact that there were far fewer wounds that that, it was exceptionally horrific and bloody. Controversy has swirled ever since over whether she had actually committed the murders, or if someone else had snuck in, done the crimes, and then escaped unnoticed. Even to this day, there are strong arguments on both sides of the issue, and most people who follow the topic have very strong opinions one way or the other.
This particular book takes a slightly different tack than most, in that it doesn't seek to prove or disprove one side or the other. Instead, Rehak lays out the basic facts, evidence, and arguments for both sides so that the reader can get a true sense of the complexity of the case. And overall, he does a relatively good job at it. I found myself going between "of course she was innocent", and "she was *so* guilty" a number of times. As such, I enjoyed that part of the book quite a bit.
Where it fell down in my opinion, was with the editing and structure. This has the look and feel of a self-published book that lacked the hand of a solid editor. The book starts out solid when he sticks to the guilty/not guilty topics. But then he goes off on "Lizzie Shrines", locations Lizzie frequented during her life. The book loses a lot of momentum there. There is also a chapter on related Lizzie articles, fiction pieces, humor, and poetry. Again, perhaps interesting to the hard-core Bordeniac, but not too relevant as to whether or not she committed the crimes. By the time I got towards the end of the book, I was more than ready to be done and to move on to something else.
Those who have an interest in the Lizzie Borden case will get a good prosecution/defense sense of what was at stake. And people obsessed with Ms. Borden will love it. But for those of us who aren't immersed and have no wish to do so, you'll probably find yourself starting to skim in a number of places...
| Permalink |
