44 books on 44 presidents: How a gunman and a doctor killed Garfield

One of the problems with biographies is how we never get as in-depth on each anecdote as we might like. For the writer, they're just steps in the overall narrative of the subject's life.

That problem is never more evident then when you encounter a book that breaks out of that mold and becomes an enjoyable experience not only for what it is, but for what it's not. 

The closest I've gotten thus far at breaking out of the usual biography rut was with Andrew Johnson, which focused primarily on Johnson's impeachment trial. I'm glad I read that over a traditional biography, even if the impeachment itself turned out to be less interesting than you might think. 

Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic is not a traditional biography of James Garfield, either, and I'm so much happier for it. While the book includes enough detail to get a sense of Garfield as a person, it focuses on the day he was shot -- and the months in which the president was in limbo before dying months later. 

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The book weaves in multiple storylines that factor into Garfield's death: an empathetic look at Garfield's assassin, Charles Guiteau; Alexander Graham Bell, who created a device meant to detect the bullet lodged somewhere in Garfield's body; Dr. Joseph Lister's groundbreaking work on antisepsis, and how the medical community's refuting of his findings basically doomed Garfield.

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The compelling narrative of Destiny -- from the shooting of the president to the trial and hanging of Guiteau -- kept me on tenterhooks with both the ebook and listening to it on audiobook. In the past, I've used this dual approach to stay on schedule. Now I did it because I was gripped. Millard's approach is very reminiscent of the work of Erik Larson (I used to live in Chicago, where it's the law that everyone read Devil in the White City during their commute at least once). 

Millard points out how the public assessment of Garfield shifted after his shooting. Some things never change: your approval rating goes up exponentially with personal tragedy. In the most horrific section, she details how the incompetence of Garfield's primary physician, Willard Bliss, was as responsible for his death as the bullet in his body. 

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I physically recoiled and paused the book during the passage describing how Bliss probed Garfield's wound, using fingers and pointers and -- dear God, I am not a squeamish person, but even typing this turns my stomach. 

There are plenty of less nasty, more interesting tidbits. Charles Purvis, part of a group of physicians that watched over Garfield, was the first black doctor to treat a sitting president. Chester A. Arthur, Garfield's vice president, was the subject of Canadian birth rumors, much like Ted Cruz. (He was also the subject of conspiracy theories surrounding Garfield's shooting -- which certainly sounds reminiscent of other Cruz adventures.)

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How much did I enjoy Millard's book? So much that it made me excited to read about Chester A. Arthur. You can probably count the number of times someone has said that on one hand. 

The only downside was the way the audiobook narrator did different voices: a Scottish brogue for Bell, a high-pitched lilt for Bell's wife, and various gruff voices for other figures, like Garfield. It's the first time I encountered such things in an audiobook, and definitely took me out of the moment a few times. 

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That issue aside, the experience of this book was one of the best of the project and one that re-energized rather than exhausted me. It was everything I was hoping for from it: a chance to learn more about the presidency's history in an engaging way. 

I'll need more of these kind of experiences to keep my momentum up, and reach the finish line in time for the 2016 election. I'm currently just under a month behind schedule. But as it happens, there's another presidential assassination coming up soon. 

Bad news for William McKinley, but good news for me.  

Days to read Washington: 16
Days to read Adams: 11
Days to read Jefferson: 10
Days to read Madison: 13
Days to read Monroe: 6
Days to read J. Q. Adams: 10
Days to read Jackson: 11
Days to read Van Buren: 9
Days to read Harrison: 6
Days to read Tyler: 3
Days to read Polk: 8
Days to read Taylor: 8
Days to read Fillmore: 14
Days to read Pierce: 1
Days to read Buchanan: 1
Days to read Lincoln: 12
Days to read Johnson: 8
Days to read Grant: 27
Days to read Hayes: 1
Days to read Garfield: 3

Days behind schedule: 23