I just did something I haven't taken the time to do in years; I read three books in a week.  The first was a work of historical fiction about the life of George Washington, the second was Ender's Game by, an excellent science fiction story and the third was a frothy little romantic comedy about pretend television stars.  I enjoyed them all.

Citizen Washington, by Martin Williams was really good.  The novelized biography of the Father of our country begins with the death of the great man.  A newsman by the name of Hesperus Draper, who grew up with Washington and fought on the frontier and in the Revolution with George, instructs his nephew to get the truth on Washington; pop the myth of the Great Hero and show the world he was just a man.  A man whom Draper knew well as an awkward, self conscious kid who was tongue tied around girls and determined to make something of himself.

Like one of my other favorite novels, The Robe, Citizen Washington is told after his death, through the eyes of the people who knew him, from the time he was a boy through his careers as a surveyor and soldier on the frontier, his part in the Revolution, his political career and retirement and final illness. 

The narrators include such historical figures as John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Sally Fairfax and Martha Washington but also slaves who knew Washington from the time he was a toddler, learning to fish on his father's farm and who went with him through all the wars and into the Presidency.

Hesperus Draper is one of the narrators, as he was there through so much of it. Although he orders his nephew to tell the truth with no bark on it, to show the world that Washington was no god, no saint, no brilliant soldier, but just a lucky, ambitious man who was in the right place at the right time.

In the end, Draper decides not to publish the book his nephew writes because stripped down to the bare bones, the story of Washington is all the more amazing because he wasn't a god or a saint or a genius.  He was just a man who knew he was right and kept on coming. 

My take on it all is that the fact that the USA came into existence at all is a miracle and George Washington is a huge part of it.