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285 pages, Hardcover
First published August 6, 2015
Hamilton reminds us that the American Revolution was a writers’ revolution, that the founders created the nation one paragraph at a time. But words can also wreak havoc. They also tear down. The heart of Act Two is a sequence of four songs that illustrate the destructive potential of language, and the perplexing fact that Alexander Hamilton never used words more devastatingly than when he used them against himself.I first read this book in 2016, the year when I was completely obsessed with Hamilton. I listened to the soundtrack Non-Stop for months. I read Alexander Hamilton, the Ron Chernow biography that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda to write this musical. That November, I finally got My Shot at tickets to see the show in New York. The show did indeed Blow Us All Away and, after being Helpless for so many months, I was finally Satisfied.
In which a family of non-theater goers gets swept off their feet by the cultural phenomenon that is Hamilton
1. In reference to the line How do you write like you're running out of time, Lin comments, "This sentence sums up how I think most of us feel in the face as of Hamilton's remarkable output. Same as Shakespeare or the Beatles: How on Earth did you do that with the same 24 hours a day that everyone else gets?" Also, how I feel about Lin-Manuel Miranda.I mean, really. How could you expect this to be anything but wonderful? Everything this man does is smart, thoughtful, and complex. Watch any interview out there with him (may I recommend the Charlie Rose piece that got chopped up for 60 Minutes), and you immediately realize that he is one of the most passionately enthusiastic people ever. His mind never stops going. He pours everything he has into everything he does. This book is no different. If you're a fan, this is a must. I inhaled this thing in a single sitting. No kidding.
2. There's a note about how someone threw a shoe in fake disgust during the recording because Leslie Odom Jr. was so damn good while singing "Wait for It," then when the rest of the cast was supposed to go add in their harmonies, Okieriete Onaodowan responded, "I'm not singing shit right now."
3. Then there's a note about Lin's homage to Ja Rule in the song "Helpless" that describes Ja's voice as "a bear roaring at the bottom of a well, approximately." Which is the best description of Ja Rule I think ever.
4. And in the passage about Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow, we learn that when Chernow's wife passed away in 2006, he chose for her headstone the line "Best of wives and best of women" from Hamilton's actual goodbye letter to Eliza. Sobs.
5. Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater, where the show held its workshop run, lost his 16-year-old son in late 2014. Lost for what he should say, Lin sent Eustis and his wife a demo of the song "It's Quiet Uptown" in the hopes that it might offer comfort, and they listened to it every day. More sobs.
“Can I be real a second?
For just a millisecond?
Let down my guard and tell the people how I feel a second?”