“Johnny One-Eye makes for an odd narrator of the events of the American Revolution, particularly when it comes to the events that take place in New York. He's a child of a brothel who has been taken under the wing of a British spy and educated at King's College, so he's of loyalist bent at the book's opening and accused of trying to poison George Washington. But the line between loyalist and patriot is often uncertain, particularly in occupied New York, and during a revolution where conflicting beliefs were not uncommon even within a single household, or even within a single man's mind.
Johnny, of uncertain parentage and uncertain loyalties, seems to garner the attention of crucial figures. He is called One-Eye after he found himself as a secretary to Benedict Arnold and was wounded in Quebec. George Washington is indulgent to him, even while his spy-master is an unremitting enemy. When the British occupy New York, he's at the table of General Howe and his brother, "Black Dick", as they dine at the Queen's Yard. Alexander Hamilton was a former school-mate. John Andre hopes to use him in his extensive spy network, whether he's willing or not.
This is a rowdy, bawdy Eighteenth Century romp among the "Nuns" of the bordello that is central to the social scene of New York, and who consequently make excellent spies. Johnny, with his strange status (who might even be Washington's love child), is neither fish nor fowl and goes back and forth between the British and the Rebels. He's in love with Clara, a blond octoroon who is one of the most coveted and elusive of the bordello's Nuns. He is friends also with Prince Paul, of Little Africa, the black quarter of old New York. Seeing life through his eyes reveals aspects of the time and the place that one rarely sees in history books, but which makes events even more vital and intriguing. Improbable as Johnny One-Eye is, there is an authenticity to the events and the people that seems informative and true.
Strangely enough, Johnny's motives and thoughts are hard to fathom or relate to, even as the narrator. He's often the least sympathetic of all the various characters, even though he seems to generally have his heart and mind in the right place, which makes us willing enough to follow his somewhat picaresque adventures. The characters he interacts with are more interesting, particularly Washington himself, who comes off as very human and even more admirable behind the grand and heroic figure we know from history.
I don't think this is a great book, but it certainly was an interesting book, with a different slant on the well-known figures of the period, in a kind of Secret History sort of way. It was a book of memorable characters and wild adventures, enjoyable and worth the time spent.”
aprillee wrote this review Tuesday, October 28 2008.
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