Gioconda (The Pope's Butcher) uses a mix of actual letters, imaginary journal entries, and facts on the historical record to tell the tale of 18th-century surgeon William Hewson and explore a fascinating historical question: why were bones buried in Benjamin Franklin’s basement? Set in London, Ben’s Bones follows Hewson’s career as an apprentice to surgeons John and William Hunter when medicine was going through a transformation from older methods to a more thorough understanding of the human body through the dissection of cadavers. These anatomists were in constant need of fresh bodies for their lectures and studies, and so they turned to criminals known as "Sackmen.” The novel’s informative but also shocking: John Hunter here is a brilliant surgeon and theorist but also something of a psychopath, as Gioconda theorizes that he performed vivisections on live animals. Franklin figures into all of this when, trying to mediate conflicts between the American colonies and the Crown, he acts as a mentor to Polly Stevenson. There’s lighter elements, too, as when Polly meets William Hewson, and it's nearly love at first sight—and Franklin aids Hewson in gaining membership to the Royal Society of Surgeons and blesses him marrying Polly, while Hewson has enough of the Hunter brothers' butchery and opens up his own school. The story culminates in an epic trial in a Masonic lodge.
Gioconda sometimes goes a little over the top in depicting the depravity and grime of London and occasionally spends too much time on side characters. However, his vivid descriptions and short chapters keep the story moving at a lively pace as the question about bones in Franklin's basement is answered in a surprising way. Gioconda wisely doesn't let any of these characters off the hook, acknowledging the price that was paid for scientific advancement but also posing the question of whether it was worth the cost in human suffering. Readers who delight in surprising historical fiction and the history of medicine will relish this.
Takeaway: Arresting historical fiction about the grisly origins of modern medicine.
Comparable Titles: Sally Cabot’s Ben Franklin’s Bastard, Catherine Johnson’s Sawbones.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A
