Treason

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY OCT 8, 2001

The events leading up to Aaron's Burr's trial for treason in 1807 are at the center of this fascinating but sadly undramatic historical novel, the fourth installment (after Dream West, 1812 and Eagle's Cry) in Nevin's popular if ponderously titled series The American Story, a History of the United States from 1800 1860. The central conflict of the tale is portrayed as a struggle between Burr and James Madison for the soul of the new country, with Madison's wife Dolley (who was introduced to Madison by Burr) providing the human element as Burr loses the race for governor of New York, kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel and conspires to take over New Orleans and use it to conquer Florida, Mexico and the West. One doesn't have to write like Gore Vidal (Burr) to use this fascinating stuff, but Nevin too often repeats previous information, asks the same question over and over again or ends a scene on a note of unspecified foreboding. The opening chapter is a microcosm of the whole: Dolley Madison's life from birth to the signing of the Louisiana Purchase is related, with all the facts entertainingly and skillfully laid out, but since there's little focus on what is dramatic and important, her ambivalent feelings about Aaron Burr are never incorporated into her character and remain only a plot device. It's promising to pit Madison, the architect of the Constitution, against Burr, but by remaining true to the particulars and avoiding unhistorical face-to-face confrontations, Nevin comes up just short of turning a dramatization of events into something stirring, engrossing and inspired. National print and TV advertising.