Worst title but best book

Never mind it has one of the worst titles for a book I have ever seen. This book has been on my “to read” list for years, but the uninviting title forced me to constantly put it aside.

When I managed to get into the story of Charles Guiteau, the madman who shot President James Garfield in 188I, I couldn’t believe how gripping the story was.

Nor could I believe what a useful book it is for history and English students – especially students who are preparing for exams like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT ), the entrance exam for many US universities.

Candice Millard, who also wrote The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey and Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, A Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill weaves together the biography of a US president with a story of advancing technology (told through the story of Alexander Graham Bell) and the US concept of medicine of that era.

Together, these three stories demonstrate just how a well thought-out theme can make or break a book. Millard’s lively writing style, her attention to detail and her brilliant use of imagery make this non-fiction book read like the best fiction you could imagine.

The author says she got the idea for Destiny of the Republic because of a book she was reading about Alexander Graham Bell, best known for his invention of the telephone.

“In everything I read, I am always looking for the thread of an idea, something that surprises me, and leaves me wanting to know more.

“While reading a biography of Alexander Graham Bell, I learned that Bell had tried to help save Garfield’s life after the President was shot. I wondered why a man as famous and powerful as Bell, who had invented the telephone just five years earlier, would abandon everything he was working on, put his life on hold, to help any man, even a President. The only way to answer that question, I realised, was to understand exactly what Bell had invented…” Millard’s story is a scathing review of US medicine.

Doctors refused to recognise the work Joseph Lister had done on sanitising operating rooms. US doctors viciously attacked Lister’s writing and dismissed his theory of germs.

The four unlikely stories of Lister, Bell, Garfield and Guiteau converge to show how Garfield’s life could have been saved if the US had acknowledged Lister’s research.

Garfield’s wounds were not grave.

He died because doctors inserted their dirty fingers in his wound probing for a bullet that need not have caused him his life.

Then there is the question of mental health. Guiteau’s madness manifested itself in many strangely visible acts of deceit and violence. He made himself a nuisance at the White House yet mental health care fared no better than traditional medical care in the US at the end of the 19th century.

All-in-all Destiny of the Republic… turns out to be a riveting read also because of Millard’s characterisation.

We can see and feel Guiteau’s madness; Garfield’s kindness and intelligence and Bell’s desperation to save the president.

There is no doubt in people’s minds that Garfield could have been one of the best and most beloved US presidents. He was elected to be president even though he didn’t choose to run.

His brilliance astounded everyone who knew him. His unnecessary death makes this book all the more shocking.