Title:

The Frozen River

Author:

Ariel Lawhon

Category:

Literature

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

December 21, 2024

he Frozen River is 432 pages long, but I sped all the way through it in a single long day spent at airports and on a crowded flight. It is nice to enjoy an engrossing novel that takes you away from present day inconveniences and drops you into marvelously depicted historical novel. The Frozen River takes place in the winter months of 1789. The town of Hallowell is built on the banks of the Kennebec River. The colonials living in this community endure a harsh life, carving out an existence from the wilderness. The heroine of this tale, Martha Ballard, is the midwife of Hallowell. When the novel begins, a deep freeze has just settled on the town, threatening to turn the river to ice. Three young men, Sam Dawin, Jonathan Ballard (one of Martha's many offspring), and James Wall are trying to get the last load of logs from the sawmill down river to Long Reach before the river becomes impassable. But Sam fell into the river at Bumberhook Point, and while he was below the surface, he spotted a body in the river. A team of men is summoned, and with axes and ropes, they chisel the body out of the river and discover that the dead man is the notorious Joshua Burgess.

Joshua Burgess was a violent townsman. He has been accused of a violent rape of the minister's wife. There was going to be an upcoming trial, and Martha Ballard was prepared to testify on behalf of Rebecca Foster (the minister's wife) that she was indeed assaulted. Now Burgess has been killed, and the mystery is who murdered him, and why? Martha has several sons, all strong young men, and she fears one of them might have done the killing. Burgess was last seen at the town dance, when he violently insisted that Hannah (one of Martha's daughters) dance with him. When Burgess tried to drag Hannah onto the dance floor, Martha's eldest son, Cyrus, intervened and ejected Burgess from the Frolic. Could Cyrus have later followed Burgess and finished the job?

Rebecca Foster claimed that she was raped by two men - Joshua Burgess and Colonel North. Unfortunately, Colonel North is a judge - how can a woman hope to get justice against such a powerful man? This book depicts how women had no rights during the Colonial Era. During trial testimony, Martha is only allowed to speak if her husband, Ephraim, is present. When a Harvard educated doctor arrives at Hallowell, suddenly the pregnant no longer want the experienced Martha Ballard present when they give birth; instead they want the manly Dr. Page, even though Martha quickly becomes convinced that Dr Page knows nothing about women or childbirth.

Because Ballard is a midwife, she interacts with a lot of pregnant women. Yet it sure seemed as if every woman in this novel is pregnant during the few months described in this book. Most of these pregnancies are to unmarried women or women who were recently married. I wondered how there could be so much stigma and shame laid on a woman who became pregnant out of wedlock when seemingly most of the female population were themselves in that same condition.

This seemed a well researched novel. Lawhon describes how the characters dressed, ate, their careers, and how they entertained themselves. Only once did Martha Ballard seem out of character - she is in her mid-50s, yet she refers to herself as "middle aged". Back in the 18th century, the expected life expectancy was something like 40 years. Anyone over 50 was old. I wondered why Martha doesn't have an apprentice learning how to be a midwife. Clearly she cannot expect to live many more years (though Lawhon tells in the afterward that Martha Ballard ended up surviving all the way until 1812.)

This book kept me entertained over one long day. I think it is a good example of how historical novels can be written. Maybe I should read another book by Lawhon, though this one was pretty long.