Historical Fiction Annotation: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

Frog Music

By Emma Donoghue

SYNOPSIS:

Jenny Bonnet is not your average woman. She is a cross-dressing, hard drinking, fisticuffs fighting, frog catcher with a questionable past, and a tight-lid on her many stories to tell. Well, until she is murdered. But this isn’t a story about Jenny Bonnet, not really. Set in San Francisco in the 1870’s, this book is really about the woman whose life she touched forever, in life and even more so, in death.

Based upon a real, unsolved crime, and the true accounts of a woman who just may have been both her best friend and lover, Blanche Beunon, this novel seamlessly merges what we know to be true, and what can be reasonably believe. The result is a harrowing tale of love, escape, survival and redemption in the midst of a city teeming with sex, violence, racism, sexism and a terrifying

small-pox epidemic.

CHARACTERISTICS/APPEAL:

Mood: The mood of this book is hot, sultry, and lush. Set during summer in San Francisco, the reader can feel the oppressive heat. Furthermore, there is a palpable aura of sexual and behavioral excess which leaves the reader feeling wrought with tension and excitement at each turn. Finally, more than anything, the mood is fearful, as the reader joins the narrator while she endures countless abuses, witnesses a murder, flees for her life, and tries at all costs to avoid the small-pox epidemic which is overtaking the city.

Violence: Violence in this book is frequent and graphic. It should be noted that the violence is often sexual in nature, and frequently involves violent men abusing women. Although the violence is never gratuitous, reader be warned.

Sexuality:  This book involves a high level of sexuality, including situations, which are graphic and explicit. An extremely important theme in this book is sexual oppression and sexual liberation, which never feel out of place, but might be more than some readers are comfortable with.

Relationships: This book deftly explores a multitude of relationships, especially their power to redeem or destroy.

Pacing: Due to the underlying mood of tension, fear and anxiety educed by the subject matter and themes explored in this book, the pacing is fast. The reader feels more like they have been on a hurtling train than they have been reading a book.

Setting: The setting is vital to this story. San Francisco in the 1870’s is where the crime is set, with an outbreak of small-pox, the crushing hub-bub of the city, and the dusty desolation of the country. The author’s vivid descriptions transport the reader and stick with them long after the story is done.

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