The definition of hell was being a woman in the 1700’s. I never thought about this until I read The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. This author pulls no punches regarding the severity of how women were disrespected, attacked and many raped by men who cloaked themselves with respectful jobs in their communities while committing brutal crimes against females and most often getting away with it.
Lawhon knows how to expose these abuses while she unfolds an epic love story between Martha Ballard and her husband, Ephraim. The romance and passion they have for one another is, in a word, beautiful. Lawhon is a master at filling in the picture of their relationship with precious little private moments between husband and wife.
The heroine, Martha Ballard, works as an independent midwife in Hallowell, Maine, a town which sits on the treacherous and icy Kennebec River. Martha works tirelessly day and night riding horseback across the region to safely deliver babies, her heart full of hope and positivity despite the treacherous Northeastern winter conditions. How she deals with the events that threaten her and the ones she loves can, at the very least, be described as brave and daring for the times. Her fortitude and determination were inspiring for me, urging me to think about the world today and how it compares in terms of gender equity.
The timeline of this novel spans six months in the year 1789, with a few flashbacks to when Ephraim and Martha first met years before. These artfully crafted scenes serve to uncover the secret circumstances around the couple’s initial union.
The Ballard household is a busy one, filled with a herd of children ranging from very young child to adult, each with a unique personality and filled with individual hopes and dreams for the future. Some children are on a path that makes Martha and Ephraim happy and proud. The exception is Jonathan, who appears to be on the road to failure. Martha worries, often troubled by fears for her children, especially for her girls who are prime targets for dangerous men who live in and out of the local area who look for opportunities to sexually attack young women without warning and with little to no legal consequences for their crimes. Yet Martha perseveres to work behind the scenes in both quiet and public ways to make a better life for each of her offspring, the boys and the girls.
Besides Martha and Ephraim, there is another star of this book; a silver fox Martha calls Tempest that appears now and then in the icy woods taking Martha by surprise when she is overcome with despair and sometimes great danger. I will now resist unveiling more of this well-crafted tale so that you, potential readers may receive the twists and turns of this story as you turn the pages. In my view, this is one of those novels that you can read again, discovering something new and insightful the second time around.
After reading the book, I found out that this story is indeed based on a real person, Martha Ballard, who lived in the 1700’s; a woman who faithfully and diligently kept a written journal recording each day of her life as a midwife, and did so using simple unemotional words, a short, crisp paragraph for each entry, much like the Martha Ballard portrayed in this fictional story. Most of the other characters in the book are also based on real life people, researched by Lawhon. This book is an example of historical fiction at its finest, a genre that I can imagine is tough to write considering all the research that must go into crafting a cohesive, compelling and factual account of historical times.
If you have an opportunity to read The Frozen River, you will undoubtedly imagine yourself as a woman living in the 1700’s. You will likely reflect on how you might have personally handled the myriad of abuses that Martha and several other female characters in this story were forced to contend with on day to day basis.
For book clubs, I predict you will have a frank and intimate discussion. You might consider talking about what it’s like for women today, and how times have changed, how we’ve evolved since those days in so many ways, yet maybe not in every way. We can all see that there is the danger of our society sliding backwards. We can see it on the horizon. It is also worth considering what we, as humans living in these contemporary times can do to help shape a better future for women in our country, and throughout the world.
Don’t miss out on The Frozen River. I recommend you savor this riveting reading experience.
