Mad Blood Stirring

In Mayo’s first novel for adults (after the children’s book Itch), a grueling work of historical fiction, the War of 1812 is over, but, because the treaty has yet to be ratified by Congress, captured American sailors continue to rot at Dartmoor Prison in England. Into this inhospitable environment comes Joe Hill, a young American sailor who is befriended in prison by Habs Snow, an educated black sailor. The prison is segregated; Joe is assigned to Block Seven while Habs resides in Block Four. Ruling Block Four is the fearsome King Dick, who turns out to have a soft spot for the theater. His idea is to entertain his fellow prisoners by staging a production of Romeo and Juliet starring Habs as Romeo and Joe as Juliet. The production itself is beset by numerous disruptions: an outbreak of smallpox, riots, violence between rival prison gangs, escape attempts, insurrection, and that fateful stage kiss between the two leads. Like Thomas Keneally’s The Playmaker, this novel, based on historical record, stirringly dramatizes how theater, stories, and art can be used as a vehicle of uplift in the midst of the most trying, dehumanizing circumstances. Mayo has created a searing portrait of humanity at its most brutal and tender. (Jan.)