John & Abigail" is informative and affecting. John's life with Abigail is unimaginable. She was the one person he could completely trust and get along with. He had a talent for alienating even his allies, yet she was devoted to him. Despite the wide geographical spaces in their togetherness, they literally could not live without one another. She died before he did, and he remarked that it was not as awful as his voyages to Europe to prop up his country. This time, he said, they wouldn't have to wait so long to be reunited.
It is rare to have a hanky handy when watching a historical docudrama, but it's not a bad idea for "John & Abigail."
To read the rest of Mahar's review click on the title above for a link.
As David Mc Cullough says at the end of the docudrama.... who would believe a novel in which Jefferson and Adams, the fathers of the Declarations of Independence, both die on it's 50th anniversary? No One would belief it. Adam's last words are "Jefferson lives," but of course he had died a few hours earlier. All of the dialog of Jefferson, Adams and Abigail is based upon their letters. The docudrama near the ends goes in to the letters that went back and forth between Jefferson and Adams in the winter of their lives. Old friends/old enemies, this is better than any fiction anyone could write. A love/hate relationship between Jefferson and Adams and a love story between John and Abigail. It was a magical two hours. These people were not perfect, but they were great and we are privileged that such men and Abigail Adams were part of this country's heritage and history.
