JESSIE

Fiction and fact mix and meld in this feminist motorcycling history.

A female motorcycle with the name Jessie emblazoned on her side aims to show naysayers—and the world—just what a girl (bike) can do. Starting in 1906, the tale follows the plucky anthropomorphized vehicle as she becomes the first female bike to cross the country. She’s turned down when she tries to sign up to be a courier in World War I, joining a traveling exposition instead. An injury puts her out of commission, but Jessie’s mantra is “Fast and strong, / I won’t be slowed! / In rain or shine, I’ll forge my road” (a refrain that changes slightly over the course of the narrative). And when World War II rolls around, she’s hired to courier messages around the country. Backmatter pays homage to female motorcyclists of the past with a particularly long essay and a timeline. The book’s heart is in the right place, but the follow-through is thoroughly muddled. Is this a world where motorcycles are entirely sentient? Such internal logic breaks down entirely at times, as when Jessie declares herself the first “woman” to reach the top of Pike’s Peak. One can’t help but imagine how much stronger this story could have been had it focused on the real female bikers of the past and not a mechanical, googly-eyed stand-in. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Good intentions cannot save this oddly executed ode.