My overall impression
Fabian has done his research about the tragic, complex general who won the war for Lincoln, and presents key highlights from Grant’s life with a contemporary flair history teachers who have bored generations of students would do well to take a few notes from.
Even better is Fabian’s framing of Grant’s story within the context of his own life. An Air Force veteran adrift, sometimes drunken and struggling to hold onto life itself, Fabian does nice job using tales of his poor-decision-making to explore the emotional parallels between himself and Grant. He gets Grant. I have no doubt Grant would grocked him back, and the two would have ended up in a bar somewhere with a bottle of whiskey.
His super-spare set and jittery, at times just beneath the threshold of manic storytelling style is compelling. Even though at times he checks the notebook to get him through, and sometimes he kind of wanders until he remembers where he’s supposed to be in the story, the way he physically embodies his words holds your attention enough to overlook that at this stage.
Everything Else is War is good now. As he fine tunes it and gets off the notebook, it’s going to turn into a great work one day.
Bonus! You don’t have to be a Civil War buff to enjoy this piece.
