- Home
- NON-FICTION
- Biography & Memoir
- The Trouble with Tom
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Description
Paul Collins combines present-day travelogue with an odyssey down the forgotten paths of history as he searches for the physical remains of founding father Thomas Paine. Paine's missing body, like a saint's relics, has been scattered in pieces around the world over the last two centuries-a brainstem in New York, a box of bones in London, a lock of hair in Edinburgh, a skull in Sydney. As Paul tracks down these remnants, he revisits the unusual life of Tom Paine-and in his search for Paine's body, Collins uncovers that body's soul.
Product details
| Published | Sep 05 2010 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 288 |
| ISBN | 9781596917484 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury USA |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
An entertaining romp.
New Yorker
-
This is research as the Great Library God intended -- one part resourcefulness; one part curiosity; one part instinct; one part slow, keen observation of detail.
LA Times
-
Collins deftly jumps between the past and his own present-day search, touching on our nation's early struggles, progressive movements, and the history of contraception. Even an excess of narrative digressions cannot detract from the pleasures of this compelling and trouble-free read.
Entertainment Weekly
-
Collins moves effortlessly between the present tense and literary sketches of the past.
Newsday
-
The embodiment of revolution comes in for an appropriately anarchic - and wild, and thoroughly enjoyable - appreciation...Elegantly written...Literary travel meets history, laced with cartloads of trivia and endless good humor. Somewhere Tom Paine, scourge of kings and conventions, is smiling.
Kirkus Reviews


















