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A Tale of the American Revolution
W. W. Norton
March 2008
On Sale: February 18, 2008
Featuring: Johnny; George Washington
448 pages
ISBN: 0393064972
EAN: 9780393064971
Hardcover
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Fiction | Historical
This comic masterpiece reimagines the American
Revolution with a one-eyed spy, a heroic whorehouse madam,
and a cunning George Washington.
Praised for one
of the most "singular and remarkable [careers] in American
literature" (Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book
World), Jerome Charyn now delights with this picaresque
tour de force. He reanimates a war-torn Manhattan overrun by
Redcoats and deserted by all but the Loyalists—and Mrs.
Gertrude Jennings, the tempestuous, redheaded queen of
Manhattan's most spectacular bordello. When the novel opens,
young double agent John Stocking is being interrogated by
Washington, a rebel commander far removed from the dour,
silent man of most history books. As Johnny seeks to unlock
the mystery of his birth and grapples with his allegiances,
he falls in love with Clara, a gorgeous, green-eyed
octoroon, the most coveted harlot of Gertrude's house. The
wild parade of characters he encounters includes Benedict
Arnold, the Howe brothers, "Sir Billy" and "Black Dick," and
a manipulative Alexander Hamilton.
Not since John
Barth's The Sotweed Factor and Gore Vidal's
Burr has a novel so dramatically re-created America's
historical beginnings.
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