Frontiers - Michael Jensen

The first words on the back cover: "The year is 1797." Right there, reason enough for me to not even try to read the book. Me and history, you know, we are not friends. But let me give it a whirl, I told myself. Had I seen this in the bookstore I would not have bought it. But I actually got this book - along with many others - from Jeffrey, and he liked it, so it should be half-decent, right?

I really enjoyed it! Much to my surprise. The main character is John Chapman who, apparently, is Johnny Appleseed. It doesn't say that in the book anywhere but I happened to see it online when I was looking to see what other books Michael Jensen has written. Anyway, John Chapman is leaving behind everything he knew and striking out to western Pennsylvania, which is still being settled at this time. It's his story, and the story of the people he meets.

Add in a love story - because apparently John Chapman is gay, which is the reason he's running. Sodomy don't go over too well in these times. And add in some violence and drama, because life wasn't easy back then, clearly. Especially not when one of the characters is a psychotic killer.

What I thought was interesting was how Michael Jensen treats the idea of identity. As the book opens, John is fleeing from southern Canada, where he was caught having a relationship with a British soldier. And John is scared, insecure, not very self-reliant. If he makes it through the trek to western PA, where he meets Daniel, it's through luck and divine providence rather than his own skills. Once he meets Daniel, though, and has to learn to survive and to kill and things like that - to be much tougher and, in a way, more violent than he has before. So he starts to refer to himself by his last name, as Chapman, and mentally differentiates between how John would handle something versus how Chapman would handle it. And it got me thinking about how much difference a name can make - and does it affect who we are and how we act?

Who am I, for instance. I'm Don, right? Yes and no. To my friends I am. To my immediate family, I'm Donald. To my extended family, Donnie. And in France I'm Donald, pronounced with a French accent. Does that make me a different person in each scenario? I do feel slightly different. Especially in France. Is there power in a name? Can it help us see ourselves differently and be different? Is a rose by any other name really still a rose? I don't know.

Anyway...a good read that was much more enjoyable than I thought. So, yay.