The Frozen River

Compelling. Powerful. Disturbing. Even though it’s clear from the beginning that this was historical fiction only in the loosest sense, it’s also clear that the bones of the story are solid and that Lawhon did a lot of research to flesh it out. Her characters are simplistic but not flat, if that makes any sense? The villains are villainous, the simple folk simple, the noble ones noble, and our hero, protagonist and first-person narrator, is too-perfect smart sharp no-nonsense competent warmhearted sensitive astute amazing ninja superwoman. Also, the drama is waaaaaaaay over the top. And somehow I found myself completely absorbed, recognizing these nits and not caring. See “compelling” above.

One reason I loved the book so much is that Lawhon pulls no punches. The details may be invented, but the circumstances are real. Life was inconceivably difficult for women in the eighteenth century(*), in ways that are different from the way life is difficult today. Lawhon shows much of their everyday life in often-cringeworthy detail. She shows the fortitude and grit needed to survive and thrive. And reminds us that there are people today, an entire political party, who would like us to return to those days.

VOTE.

* and nineteenth and twentieth and twenty-first. Possibly earlier centuries too.