Blindspot

Book No: 12
Title: Blindspot
Author: Jane Kamensky & Jill Lepore
Genre: Historical Fiction
Completed:
No. of Pages: 512
Rating: 4/5*****

I really enjoyed this bawdy tale set in the years just prior to the American Revolution. The subtitle of the book is By a Gentleman in Exile and a Lady in Disguise sets out the basic premise of the book.

Stewart Jameson is the gentleman in exile, a newcomer to Boston colonies. Jameson has fled Scotland due to an outstanding debt, which leads us to believe he is a scoundrel, but the nature of that debt is one far more noble and when we learn the reason for it, it allows us to care about Jameson.

The Lady in Disguise is Fanny Easton, once the daughter of one of Boston’s leading citizens. Fanny has fallen from grace and has ended up in the Manufactory House; there she works long hours for food and lodging, scarce as it may be.

When Jameson sets up shop as a portrait painter he places an ad for an apprentice. Seeing the ad Fanny devises her plan to pass herself as a young boy, Francis Weston, and use the job as a way out of poverty. Of course mush confusion occurs when Jameson falls in love with his apprentice and Fanny, in love with Jameson, must keep her secret. When a local prominent politician is killed Francis/Fanny, Jameson and their friend Dr. Alexander, himself a runaway slave, decide to discover who the murderer is.

The story is told in alternating voices, with Jameson writing in a journal and directing his story to us, the Reader. Fanny’s tale is told through her letters to a close friend, the only one who know her secret. Interspersed throughout are several news articles from the Boston Gazette, which lets us know of the political upheaval going on all around our two protagonists.

There is a lot going on in this book besides cross dressing and forbidden love. We have the politics informing us of the start of the uprising of the colonies. There is much discussion of slavery, a contradiction of the Bostonians fight for freedom while they themselves keep slaves. There is the murder, a mockery of a trial, betrayals, insanity and more. The style of the book tries to be true to the timeframe, so the language often sounds stylistic. The humor is often ribald and the sex scenes a little steamy, trying for the tone of some of the classic books of the time (i.e. Tom Jones). However the heart and soul of the book is the love story of Jameson and Fanny.