The Frozen River

This novel, based on the life of midwife Martha Ballard, grabs the reader from the very beginning and doesn’t let loose until the last page is turned (including the author’s notes at the end). Ariel Lawhon’s writing is captivating. Well-written and based on real events in Ballard’s life (though condensed into one season of the river’s freezing), this book is a delightful read. Set shortly after the Constitution of the US was written. Highly recommend.

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.

This book was a good read, but it had more of a fictional ring to it than historical. It was as though we took women with the mindset of today and plunked them back then. At times, the book did seem to have far too many characters. Many of which didn’t matter and disappeared from the storyline altogether. It did seem to be repetitive at times, but such is Martha’s life.

I would still recommend this book to read, but I likely won’t read it again. The story was overall good and kept me reading.