cover image Great Americans: Famous Names, Real People

Great Americans: Famous Names, Real People

KK Ottesen, K. K. Ottesen. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, $24.95 (180pp) ISBN 978-1-58234-296-2

Al Capone works in a South Philly food distribution center; Emily Dickinson studies chemistry at a Quaker college; Greta Garbo, born in Italy, is a divorced cancer researcher living in Kentucky. From John Adams to John Wayne, Ottesen reveals, through b&w photographs and informal interviews, the people who share their names with giants in American history and culture. It's a cute idea whose end result could have been merely clever, but Ottesen's subjects are fascinating. Paul Revere, founder and pastor of the Embassy of Heaven church, tells of being evicted from his land by the Oregon National Guard; in response to Ottesen's question,""What does it mean to be an American?"" (a question she asked all her subjects), Revere says,""Ha ha ha. A bunch of people who have fallen asleep who haven't got a clue what's going on."" To Rosa Parks, a mother of three who also holds down two jobs, being an American means""we get our freedom. We have the freedom to go anywhere that we want to go."" There are sad parts--Herbert Hoover admitting that his days are""dark. I don't have a very good outlook on the day anymore...haven't been happy since the wife went away""--and humorous bits--Farmer Homer Simpson saying that people""used to call all during the night: 'Is Bart there?' I finally figured out that it was on television... Don't care nothing about television, just the ballgames""--and lots of food for thought. People were surprisingly open with Ottesen, and their stories are compulsively readable. Ottesen's own commentary--brief notes in which she sets the scene and describes how charming she found her subjects--are the only false note in this otherwise engaging volume.