Early U.S. spy novel shows different side of leaders

It is 1776. A hangman’s cord tightens its grip on Johnny One-Eye. Rifles jab at his ribs. Accused of poisoning George Washington’s soup, the young double agent’s chance of survival seems slim. Yet Washington himself spares John “Johnny One-Eye” Stocking, and recruits him as a spy for his secret service.

Jerome Charyn’s latest is a picaresque saga of intrigue and seduction that re-creates Washington’s days as a revolutionary through the eye of his spy and would-be son. After losing an eye in a fight alongside Benedict Arnold, Johnny leads readers through the wartime labyrinth of lower Manhattan, dangerous streets heady with the perfume of prostitutes and gun smoke.

Johnny is uniquely equipped for espionage. As the illegitimate son of a bordello-madam who carries on a lifelong love affair with Washington, he was raised in a climate where secrets, seduction and deceit serve as currency, where it is easy for him to imagine Washington as his father. Complicating his adventures are his ties to the crown, which paid for his education at King’s College, and to Clara, a clever, green-eyed harlot whom he has loved since childhood.

With a teenager’s daring, Johnny fights and allies with history’s notables, while grappling with his uncertain lineage, political loyalties and devotion to Clara. The novel’s hotheaded pace and prose mirror the war’s tenor, and Johnny’s own struggle emphasizes both the fabled strength and the frailty of his contested father.

Towering above the striking backdrop of war, trickery and desire is Washington, a man who struggles to find the words to express what he so deeply feels. Flipping our familiar, historical understanding of Washington, Charyn instead celebrates a red-blooded American icon, a flawed, courageous leader.