Benjamin Franklin's Bastard by Sally Cabot

Thursday December 4, 2014       Host:  Cheryl

Attendees:  Janna, Myra, Susan, Nan, Amy, Michelle, Lori, Mary Margaret, Pat and Pam

Okay, who read the book this month?   Hands up!! Believe it or not, everyone who attended book club had read the entire book. That makes two months in a row for us so good job ladies!



Pat toasts while raising her hand and Mary Margaret looks incredibly sincere about her hand raising. These ladies definitely read Benjamin Franklin's Bastard.

Here are the happy, smiling faces of Myra, Janna, and Cheryl after eating some food. We are now ready to discuss our book.

Benjamin Franklin's Bastard is a historical fiction book that told the story of Benjamin Franklin and his bastard son, and the women who loved them both. William Franklin was the son of Benjamin and his favorite mistress, Anne. However, the child William is raised by Deborah, Benjamin's common-law wife. The book tells much of Anne's love for her son William and her efforts to remain in touch with him over the years but always from afar and unknown to William as his mother. The book also details Benjamin Franklin's many profession and talents along with his ambitious son's eagerness to rise in stature politically.

In our discussion, we hit upon several agreed-upon points:

• As talented a man as Benjamin Franklin was (author, printer, inventor, postmaster, scientist, statesman, etc.), he was quite the scoundrel and a real lady charmer.
• Class consciousness affected the lives of both Deborah and William (common-law wife/uneducated; a bastard son), so they both had trouble fitting comfortably into their society at certain points in their lives.
• It was hard to really be sympathetic with many of the book's characters except Grissom.
• The last third of the book dragged a bit with William and his political struggles; "writing style went downhill" (Pam).
• The book had way too much sexual detail with Anne's bed partners.
• It was interesting to us that Benjamin considered himself "monogamous but not celibate".

Pam gave us a quote from Benjamin's real "advice to a friend on choosing a mistress". The quote refers to older mistresses from below the girdle (impossible of two women to know an old from a young one): "as in the dark all cats are grey", so the pleasure of corporal enjoyment with an old woman is at least equal. Oh my...thank goodness for that!

Quote of the evening: When Michelle told of her relative who works in a chicken processing plant, and the chicks are no longer receiving antibiotics (so more are dying), Amy replied: "Isn't killing them the idea anyway?".

Our rating: 3.75 out of 5