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"As he was drinking rum flip with Ethan…my uncle lost his footing and struck his head so sharp a blow on the gate of the fort that he never, I am grieved to report, quite regained his correct wits." --- Ticonderoga Kinneson
Ticonderoga Kinneson's explanation paints the personality picture of his uncle, Private True Kinneson. True's exploits in THE TRUE ACCOUNT are acts that reflect his ribald imagination. The young Ti, an artist in his own right, assumes the gargantuan task of keeping track of True's heroic enterprises. THE TRUE ACCOUNT celebrates the Lewis and Clark expedition bicentennial as a fictional account of what might have been if there was a race to the Pacific between two exploring groups.
In 1804, True and Ti set out from their home in Vermont on an expedition to the Pacific, ahead of Lewis and Clark. True meets with President Jefferson and receives approval to begin the trip, but without official funds. His hilarious attempt to raise money is through proceeds from his original pay. Not well received, the drama gets him run out of town where he stages it. Undaunted, he moves from Monticello to the Natchez Trace, where the race begins.
His misadventures continue when he meets Flame Danielle Boone, Daniel's daughter, an army of Spaniards and Anasazis, the Nez Perce, Shoshone and Blackfoot tribes. Dressed as a Don Quixote figure, Private True rides a broken-down mule and brandishes an arquebus as his weapon. Chain mail, a belled night stocking and galoshes complete his usual attire. Fifteen-year-old Ti spends much of his time tracking the errant uncle. A conversation with Meriwether Lewis reveals that the high-spirited True is a religious devotee of the use of hemp plant. Lewis is astonished when True confesses to sharing his smoke with a child of five years.
The action becomes more bizarre with the entrance of a mysterious Blackfoot girl named Yellow Sage Flower Who Tells Wise Stories. At this point, the Lewis and Clark group travels alongside True. Ti's painting of the journey is the trip's chronicle, if one can believe that he is given free license to draw the principals involved. At best, the portrait of his uncle shows the "true" character.
The title, THE TRUE ACCOUNT, is an appropriate use of the lead character's persona. Readers of the novel, with a thirst for accurate history, will be disappointed. However, a map at the beginning sketches the path of True's journey and the paths that both follow and deviate from the Lewis and Clark route. Page-turning to the maps kept my curiosity alive to determine the author's willingness to adhere to history.
Howard Frank Mosher depicts a hilarious, ribald free-spirited man who makes his own history. While I found the story too bizarre to believe, it was inventive, clever, hilarious and good fun. Apologies to historians devoted to the preservation of real truth.
--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad
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