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1876 – It’s a rip roaring, bodice ripping, romp through a true story with a twist!
Frog Music
What you need to know before your trail
Based on a true unsolved crime, this is the story of Blanche and Jenny, two women trying scrape a living in a hot and violent city. Blanche, former used to work in the Parisian Cirque d’Hiver, and is now an exotic dancer living with her “maque” (pimp) Arthur and his close friend Ernest. Jenny is a cross-dressing frog-catcher who supplies the French and Chinese communities with the small green creatures…..
The two men are wasters and charlatans, sponging off Blanche’s earnings whilst attempting to make a living as professional gamblers.
To complicate matters Blanche and Arthur have a son, P’tit Arthur, who was shipped off to a baby farm shortly after his birth so that the couple could carry on their decadent lifestyles.
What could go wrong?
Travel Guide
“Frog Music” —Emma Donoghue’s first historical novel set in America — takes us to San Francisco in the boiling summer of 1876 and for a true life tale that shocked the city at the time and which in Frog Music is brought back to its seedy crime ridden life.
Crime, disease and racial violence are not the only things keeping this city aflame however, there are immigrants threatening to riot, a shaky atmosphere pervades the air and there is always the threat of a smallpox epidemic to contend with.
It is based loosely on the true and unsolved crime – The San Miguel Mystery—the unsolved murder of 27-year-old Jenny Bonnett, a cross-dressing transgressive who worked as a frogcatcher – catching and selling frogs to French and Chinese restaurants.
It’s a story for all the senses – especially the language and dialect used.
Blanche , the narrator of the novel, and Jenny are two women striving to scrape a living in a turbulent and violent city. Blanche, formerly of the Parisian Cirque d’Hiver, is now an exotic dancer living with her pimp Arthur and his close friend Ernest. Blanche falls pregnant and is forced to place her son in a baby farm. This comes back to haunt her in more ways than one.
San Francisco’s Chinatown is a place of wonder even now for the fantastic restaurants and sights you can see. However the one in the book is a lot more of an eye opener for many different reasons! There’s lust, murder as well as frog catching and prostitution. Oh and a small pox epidemic.
Booktrailer Review
Clare @thebooktrailer
Eclectic or what? And unbelievable if it weren’t based on true facts but the author captures not only the time and mood of the story but the setting in rich vivid detail. You can feel the sweat running down your own back as you read and the feather bower tickling your nose. There are also lots more songs included in the novel or mentioned. In fact I was very pleased to see a song list of sorts at the back of the book. You definitely need to play this when reading this book. Talk about not only experiencing a place as the author did but to listen to the same music to put you in the very spot musically too. In a novel about showtunes, dancing and music. Very clever.
On this seedy side of the city, despite the portrayal of the underbelly of such a vibrant place as San Francisco there is an overwhelming vibrancy and lust for life as the characters charge headfirst in to danger and self destruction
Ladies and Gentleman. Welcome to San Francisco
Such a heady mix which makes for a weird is slightly unsettling novel. It’s based on true facts otherwise you might say it was far fetched. Well, they do say truth is stranger than fiction.
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Twitter: @EDonoghueWriter
Facebook: /EmmaDonoghueWriter
Web: emmadonoghue.com
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