Old Abe by John Cribb

 Narrator - Gary Bennett

Genre - Historical Fiction

Rating - 3 out of 5 stars

Narration - 4 out of 5 stars

While this book was a very good IF you take it as fiction. I have done a lot of research on the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln and found the history a bit changed where it did not have to be.

This book starts when Abraham Lincoln was chosen for the Republican candidate for the state of Illinois. Then goes on to describe how he was elected to run for president. This is one of those places where I feel the writer took extreme artistic liberties.

The book goes on to tell about Abraham’s time in the White House and how the Civil War was played out. Telling about how Abraham ran his campaigns in the war and his life at home. It also goes into a little of Mary Todd Lincoln’s decent into madness. Which I felt was a great way to take the story.

There were some very historically documented facts in the book. For example when he showed Mary the insane asylum and told her if she didn’t shape up she would end up there. Another example was him calling her excessive spending on what he called “flubdubs.” This is something I have come across in much of my research.

I only gave the narrator 4 stars because while he did an excellent job at the narration I found myself falling asleep at certain points because they were dry and he did not make them exciting enough to keep me interested. Also he was not the greatest at making the characters different except when it came to Tad Lincoln. Excellent job there.

Once again the is categorized as Historical Fiction so the author is able to take certain liberties. Although with a man this famous I do not believe fiction books should be written about him.

I want to thank NetGalley and Orange Sky Audio for letting me review this book.