Customer Reviews

Blindspot: A Novel

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

When I realized that the three main characters in this historical novel set in the 18th century thought and acted like our contemporaries, I thought the scholarly writers were enjoying a deliberately incongruous romp, and romped along with them. But the novel soon becomes tedious, the characters too ungrounded. One character channels Sherlock Holmes, another quotes Bronte, and supposed Puritans quote Shakespeare as a moral authority. Oh, come on, Professors Lepore and Kamensky -- you could do better. Blindspot lacks the rewards of historical fiction -- the sense of visiting another time, or history animated. It yields little sense even of the colonial city where it is set. The detective plot is uncompelling. I dropped out before the murder was solved. I just didn't care. Very disappointing.

The authors have written a book of the 1700's with all the main characters possessing 21st century mentalities; equality for all races, sexes etc. Although you applaud their stands you find it highly improbable and at times tiring. The mystery aspect is poor, with the villain and murderer being announced far in advance. The writing is excellent but the rest . . .

This novel blends the atmosphere of The American Revolution in Boston with a murder mystery. You only want to put this novel down so you can savor it and have something to look forward to read tomorrow! I'm reading other books now, however I keep hoping for a Blindspot II! These three main characters need another mystery to solve as the revolution gets closer.

A blind spot, the authors of this novel tell us, is when you can't see something that's right in front of your face. I nearly had my own blind spot when deciding whether to order this book. Love in the midst of the American Revolution? A case of mistaken identity and an audacious young woman dressing as a boy? Ho-hum, I thought. But I swallowed my reservations and succumbed to "Blindspot's" temptation.

Dear Reader, I'm glad I did. (You'll also notice, Reader, that I did not follow up on the double-entendre in the last sentence of the above paragraph. The main characters of the novel would not have been so restrained. This is an adult novel, with adult language and adult themes - caveat emptor, you delicate flowers of sensibility.) "Blindspot" is a delight, a novel rich in story and character, a joy to read - and, yes, a heartache too.

At its center are two characters falling in forbidden love - Stewart Jameson, a portrait-painter fleeing his native Scotland to make a new home in Boston, and Fanny Easton, a fallen aristocratic woman who is also Francis Weston, Jameson's new apprentice. Together, they flatter and cajole Boston bluest bloods and most fervent patriots into having their portraits painted - and revealing their secrets and hypocrisies as well.

For while Jameson and Weston flirt over their easels, a man is murdered - an abolitionist whose slaves are accused of poisoning him. And while they mouth talk of freedom and liberty, the cream of Boston society has no problem with enslaving and unjustly executing others. With Jameson's friend Dr. Ignatius Alexander - the "African genius" - our heroes must solve the murder and expose the corruption at the heart of America's birthplace.

So this is a story about politics, philosophy, murder, revenge, adultery, religion, slavery, and love - yes, Dear Reader, love. For while the murder of Samuel Bradstreet forms the backbone of this story, the love between Jameson and Fanny/Weston is its soul. From the alternating first-person narrative, we come to know and care about these two characters deeply. Their romance, by turns funny, poignant, bawdy, infuriating, and moving, will captivate even the most head-hearted of readers. And the ending! I can't say too much without spoiling it, but oh, it's been a long time since a novel's ending has affected me like that.

Dear Reader, I entreat you - seek out this book. Kamensky and Lepore have created a masterpiece, rich in both historical and narrative detail. I sincerely hope this is not the last collaboration between these two talented authors!

I was too caught up enjoying the hot romance and intrigue to be bothered by any anachronisms, as a lot of other reviews criticized. I read it all in one long sitting because I couldn't put it down. A smart, sassy woman dressed as a boy? A gruff, sexy, principled man who's attracted to a person, rather than a gender? It had me hooked from the start.

I have a shocking confession to make. I have never read one of Barbara Cartland's "Romance" novels. In fact, I have not consciously ever read a novel that is classified in that genre. All I know is that such novels are often nicknamed "Bodice Rippers" and "soft porn". The implication is that page after page drips with such components. As I say I don't know as I have never read anything such.

"Gothic"? Well, I did read Wuthering Heights (Signet Classics) many years ago, and I understand that this is considered by many to be the original Gothic novel, and the archetype for all its successors. While I do find some "Wuthering" characteristics in Blindspot: A Novel, that is in no way the core of its construction.

Then there is the mystery of the method by which a co-authored novel is written. When Naked Came the Stranger first hit the bookstands readers were amused by the serial writing method in which a succession of well qualified novelists expanded a once popular party game into constructing a book that would publish and actually get read. Blindspot has two writers, and the two principal characters have clearly different voices. I suspect that the collaboration here was to have jointly decided on the plot outline, and then each author stepped up to tell the story. Unlike the classic Japanese movie Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa (Remastered Edition) - Subtitled - 1951, however, these two do not have different ideas of "what happened". Merely different viewpoints.

There is a small amount of erotic material in the story. There is a huge amount of passionate love. Both are handled tastefully and well. Men generally write of erotic events in terms of "taking", whereas female authors such as these have a more "giving" style. This benefits the story as a whole greatly.

Finally, the fact that these co-authors are full professors at a pair of Ivy League universities, located close to each other, and that they have known each other since being students together at Yale, is an almost certain guarantee of their ability to cooperate. They have woven history from the viewpoint of the common man in a form that Dickens once did in the London of the mid 19th century. Blindspot is set in the couple of years prior to the U.S. Declaration of Independence in Boston -- a more primitive Boston than we can ever imagine today.

I would unhesitatingly recommend this to any adult reader -- however with the warning that the brief erotic parts might be a trifle offensive to a sensitive one.

Blindspot is presented from three different perspectives. The first is that of Stewart Jameson, who writes as if to a reader of his journal ("Reader" is referenced often). The second is that of Fanny Easton, who writes letters to a girlhood friend that quickly turn into a journal as she realizes that they are not the kind of letters that Lizzie wants to read. The third perspective is that of newspaper clippings, mostly from Boston, on the eve of a revolution. The three different perspectives take some getting used to (which might have been easier because my degree is in history? I do not know if someone with a different background would have a harder time with it or not.), but once you do the book sucks you in like any good book should. There is romance, disguised sex, decent sex scenes, murder, slavery, and revolution - all the makings of an entertaining read.

And entertaining it was, but I felt like there were a few key weaknesses - not the least of which is the character of Dr. Ignatius Alexander. He is supposed to bring racism and slavery and popular conceptions of race into the fray as a highly educated runaway slave helping to solve the murder that two slaves are accused of. He ends up being very flat, two dimensional, and irritating. And he monologues. Oh, does he ever monologue. There is a point where the murder story line is reaching its arch - where Alexander is explaining what happened - when I just wanted him to shut up. Needless to say, sometime after Jamenson's discovery that the apprentice that he was falling in love with was in fact, a woman, I felt like the story was basically done - and yet there was a good two hundred odd pages left of murder mystery to wrap up.

The story line of Easton and Jameson's romance, the tension between them, the love - it is a solid story line and very romantic. I love the character of Easton, and Jameson is admirable without being faultless. I love the journal/letter/newspaper ("fictionalized primary source") approach that is very unique - but the murder mystery I could have done without. Or, at least, it could have been done better. It feels like the authors tried to juggle too many topics for one novel, leaving some of the story lines (racism and murder) falling short of what they could have been while others (Easton as a female in her time, the Jameson-Easton romance) were just right.

However - I would still recommend this book, particularly if you like history or historical fiction, and if you like your romance with a plucky heroine and a slightly "blind" hero.