Blindspot: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Jane Kamensky (Author), Jill Lepore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 2008

“Tis a small canvas, this Boston,” muses Stewart Jameson, a Scottish portrait painter who, having fled his debtors in Edinburgh, has washed up on America’s far shores. Eager to begin anew in this new world, he advertises for an apprentice, but the lad who comes knocking is no lad at all. Fanny Easton is a lady in disguise, a young, fallen woman from Boston’s most prominent family. “I must make this Jameson see my artist’s touch, but not my woman’s form,” Fanny writes, in a letter to her best friend. “I would turn my talent into capital, and that capital into liberty.”

Liberty is what everyone’s seeking in boisterous, rebellious Boston on the eve of the American Revolution. But everyone suffers from a kind of blind spot, too. Jameson, distracted by his haunted past, can’t see that Fanny is a woman; Fanny, consumed with her own masquerade, can’t tell that Jameson is falling in love with her. The city’s Sons of Liberty can’t quite see their way clear, either. “Ably do they see the shackles Parliament fastens about them,” Jameson writes, “but to the fetters they clasp upon their own slaves, they are strangely blind.”

Written with wit and exuberance by longtime friends and accomplished historians Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore, Blindspot weaves together invention with actual historical documents in an affectionate send-up of the best of eighteenth-century fiction, from epistolary novels like Richardson’s Clarissa to Sterne’s picaresque Tristram Shandy. Prodigiously learned, beautifully crafted, and lush with the bawdy, romping sensibility of the age, Blindspot celebrates the art of the Enlightenment and the passion of the American Revolution by telling stories we know and those we don’t, stories of the everyday lives of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Professors Kamensky and Lepore try for playful historical romance, but deliver instead a novel that is, if rich in period detail, also overwrought, predictably plotted and at times embarrassingly purple. The year is 1764 and portrait painter Stewart Jameson has been chased by debtors from his native Scotland to Boston, where he quickly opens shop and takes an apprentice, the half-starved orphan, Francis Weston, who turns out to be Fanny Easton, the disgraced daughter of one of Boston's leading citizens. Stewart does a good business with Boston's better class, which puts Stewart and Fanny in a good position to solve the murder of an abolitionist. They are joined at this task by Stewart's old friend from Edinburgh, Dr. Ignatius Alexander, a university-trained runaway slave. The mystery plays out with little surprise; rather, the narrative is driven by Alexander's hatred of slavery and by Stewart and Fanny's tawdry relationship. Unfortunately, however, both of these lines prove awkward, and while students of the era may find enough period detail to carry them through, the cheesy plot and facile characterizations are likely to turn off most readers. (Dec.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

A tribute to—and a send-up of—18th-century melodramas, Blindspot addresses 21st-century themes while mimicking the bygone era's literary techniques: first-person, epistolary narratives; adventure-studded storylines; and sensational plot twists, including mistaken meanings, hidden identities, and unexpected revelations. At the same time, Kamensky and Lepore skillfully capture the contrasts of early American history, particularly the colonists' struggle to free themselves from British tyranny while blithely ignoring the growing African slave trade (Colonial America's "blindspot"). Most critics were charmed by this witty, irreverent novel, though a couple expressed concerns over its length and overplotting. Despite the San Diego Union-Tribune's admitted aversion to 18th-century literature, history buffs, fans of early fiction, and readers in search of a fun and clever book will thoroughly enjoy Blindspot.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed edition (December 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385526199
• ISBN-13: 978-0385526197
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.3 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #595,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rolicking romp, January 1, 2009

By 

A reader (Amherst NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Blindspot: A Novel (Hardcover)

Full disclosure: I am an English teacher and an American history buff (some might say geek) and I ordered this book for three reasons: I enjoyed New York Burning, by one of this book's coauthors, Jill Lepore; I like a nice, racy 18th-century novel; and I was intrigued to learn whether two history professors could team up to write a plausibly entertaining novel in 18th-century style. So I suppose you could say I'm not really the average reader.

Given my predilections, I knew that I would enjoy the book even if it was not so great. Fortunately, it really was tremendous fun and I enjoyed the book even more than I anticipated I would. From my perspective, the book is a lark and can therefore be forgiven some of the shortcomings in weightiness that some other reviewers have objected to. While it touches upon some complex themes from American history (slavery, class, disempowerment of women), the novel does not set out to change the world or even to offer serious food for thought on these issues, which provide a context for the main story line rather than a foundation for it. Rather, the novel is primarily a love story, and this love story, in the best Shakespearian tradition, features cross dressing and mistaken identity. The most enjoyable part of the book is the cat-and-mouse play between the disguised woman and her libertine love interest before her true identity is revealed. Because he swings both ways and she makes a comely lad, he is burning with desire for her even as she lusts after him. Needless to say, this ardent desire is teased out in a number of steamy scenes before climax is finally reached.

Like some other reviewers, I found the unveiling of the solution to the murder mystery to be somewhat strained and the character of the cross-dresser's father to be rather inexplicable. On the whole, though, I was absorbed by the book as I read and will remember the experience fondly. I suppose the book is not for everyone, but if you have a soft spot for 18th-century ribaldry, this novel will not let you down.

42 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Out Damn'd Blindspot, January 1, 2009

By 

Daniel Myers (Greenville, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blindspot: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

This book serves as an excellent reminder of why academics, secluded in the ivory tower, should stay so secluded and not venture out into the realm of "historical fiction," especially when they do so in tandem with an academic friend from another ivory tower. To indulge in alliteration, Blindspot is a purple pastiche of period pamphleteering. I wonder if these gushing Vine reviewers have read any of the classic authors in this genre of the time: Fielding, Smollett et alia. Their reviews do indeed seem as if they were written by the same "John Puff, Esq." who pays homage to this book on its back cover.

To be more specific, this book is far too long, too predictable, too studiedly purple, and, above all, too coy by more than half to be enjoyable. Also - though I'm not supposed to point the numerous errata out in an ARC, there is one erratum I hope was duly corrected - that of the dog Gulliver's being in two places at once at one point in the narrative. Since Gulliver is apparently based on one author's own dog, one can only hope that she caught this canine violation of the time-space continuum.

What else to say? Oh yes, if you must needs read fiction of this sort, READ THE REAL THING: Tom Jones, The Adventures of Roderick Random, even Shamala (mentioned herein) are far, far more engaging reads then this very silly book. - Two stars, but only because I fully admit to being a sap for anyone who quotes at length one of my favourite thinkers, David Hume.

Now, I shall sit back and wait for the "unhelpful" votes to roll in, probably some spiteful comments too, I shouldn't wonder.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Historical Harlequin, December 20, 2008

By 

Richard A. Mitchell "Rick Mitchell" (candia, new hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blindspot: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Through about 100 pages, I thought I was reading what I imagine Harlequin romances to be: overwritten, tedious muck. Then a mystery appeared on the scene and I was carried for about 75 pages, then the Harlequin resumed.

This is billed as an historical novel/romance. The "history" is repetitive, redundant and, amazingly, repeats itself again. We know there was a stamp act, we know there were Bostonians for and against slavery and we know there were Bostonians for and against liberty, and, at times those beliefs hypocritically overlapped. This book lent nothing more to those obvious "historical insights".

The romance portion was as predictable as it was dull. The woman who dresses as a painter's young male apprentice falls in love with the painter and he with her. The only "tension" was when it would be revealed that she was a she. There was no doubt in this formulaic novel that it would happen. Frankly, the one surprise was that the revelation occurred earlier than I expected.

The characters were mundane and also predictable. The supporting cast was all cardboard cut-outs. Very little happens in this book to support 479 pages. The number of pages is indicative of the overwritten droll that took up most of the book. This is a book to be skipped.