Reply To: Did you read the author’s note?

Home / Forums / Author Forums / Ariel Lawhon / The Frozen River / Did you read the author’s note? / Reply To: Did you read the author’s note?

January 26, 2025 at 6:49 am #33856

I read both the author’s note and, inspired by that, Ulrich’s “A Midwife’s Tale.” Like Tara, I believe they added to my appreciation of Martha, her family and the times in which they lived. Ariel Lawhon truly captured the essential spirit and qualities of the people and that period of time. The changes Lawhon made to write a novel rather than rewriting Martha’s biography did not detract from any of the core elements of Martha’s life and work.

“The Frozen River” raises some challenging questions about justice and revenge, not the least by Martha referring to the knife she ultimately uses to amputate Joseph North’s penis by that name. Given that Martha is literally defending herself from a man who expressly intends to do to her exactly what he was acquitted from doing to Rebecca Foster, this conclusion looks more like a form of justice, albeit outside of any justice system. Still, Martha makes clear that her intention was not only to defend herself but to punish North in a very specific way connected to the crime of rape. The author’s solution represents some of both, but set in the context of the time and its judicial system, one that seems fitting.

avataravataravataravataravatar