Kingston by Starlight

This book was a rollicking good time -- great summer read with fantastic, strong female lead. If you liked Ahab's Wife, you'll love this book!

As a lover of historical fiction, this one fills the bill although in a totally different way than most fictional looks at history. I had never heard of the pirate Anne Bonny or Mary Read, but they did become credible characters in this page-turner. At times I felt like I was reading a history book, at other times it became almost a farce, and at some points a touching almost erotic love story. It truly is a yarn filled with an interesting look at piracy in the Caribbean and at some very unusual lives with some unexpected twists.

Anne Bonny, an actual person involved in a 1720 trial of Pirates in Jamaica, was a fascinating character born in Ireland. She is desperate when her father abandons her and her mother, and her mother dies on board a ship sailing for America. She passes herself off as a young man named Bonn,and finds work on the William, sailing under the command of Calico Jack Rackam, a chaismatic pirate with a price on his head. Bonn is entranced by the sea, the ship's violent crew, and a mysterious swordfighter named Read, who has a secret of his/her own. When Bonn, Read, and Calico Jack are captured, dark secrets are revealed and the book has a surprise ending. It seems that no matter who you were before you joined the pirate crew, it no longer was important. You were one of the gang, the team, one for all, and all for one, even when the governor of Jamaica had a price on your head. This was a hard book to put down, even for a 70 year old grandmother!

From the first page of this book, you know that you're reading something special, and very different from other novels out there. Kingston By Starlight tells the story of a young Irish woman, Anne Bonney, who, after several twists of fate, decides to seek her fortunes at sea. She dresses as a man and winds up on the pirate ship The Will, which is captained by the charismatic Calico Jack Rackham. Anne--now known simply as Bonn--falls in love with the freedom of the seafaring life. As dirty and dangerous as it is, it's a big improvement over the life as a woman in the 18th century. Drunk on her own freedom, Bonn forms close alliances with both Calico Jack and swordfighting sailor named Read. I won't spoil the plot by revealing too much, but the twists and turns of the plot are always surprising, particularly at the end, when there are several climactic scenes that really rocked my world. Christopher Farley is not only an excellent, lyrical, writer, he keeps enough things up his sleeve that you are shocked and delighted by every turn in this very suspenseful book. This is also a simply wonderful portrait of the West Indies, beautifully imagined, with many startling notions about race and how appearances are deceiving. Highly recommended.

Kingston by Starlight is Christopher John Farley's reimagining of the legend of Anne Bonny, notorious female pirate of the Caribbean. The book offers a variety of perspectives on life for a woman in the early 1700s, as well as a fascinating take on the circumstances that could have propelled Anne Bonny to hide her gender and join the crew of Calico Jack Rackam. Kingston by Starlight is no "Pirates of the Caribbean" but we may imagine Johnny Depp in Calico Jack's role. Indeed, the novel shows an excellent understanding of the politics and world economy of the time, and the cast of characters of the pirate ship in particular is a study in the benefits of globalization, writ small in the economy of a pirate ship. More parallels may be found in Edward Said's excellent essay, "Jane Austen and Empire," even though Said was writing about a later period in history, and in the pirate romance, "The Windflower," by Laura London.