I just finished reading Caleb's Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks. I have been mixed on her past novels...really loved People of the Book, but was only so-so on March, which was the one that won her the Pulitzer Prize.
Caleb's Crossing wasn't my favorite book ever, but it did grow on me. Brooks takes as her subject the first Native American to graduate from Harvard University in the 1660s. She bases her story on the few historical documents that surround this event, but then richly imagines the world of early Colonial America. Caleb, who was the Native American Scholar, grew up on Martha's Vineyard, and that is where most of the action takes place. It is told from the perspective of a young English girl, Bethia, whose father is the minister on Martha's Vineyard, and who befriends Caleb as a young girl. Both Caleb and Bethia are uncommonly smart, and therefore out of the social norm. Bethia is one of very few girls who has learned how to read, and also has picked up Wampanoag (the Native language) from living on the island. Caleb has learned English. Together they become secret best friends and teach each other about their cultures, religions, and languages.
Ultimately, her family takes in Caleb (not knowing about their friendship), educates him, and sends him, along with their own son to Cambridge for prep school and then college.
I won't reveal any more of the plot, in case you read it. But the book is primarily concerned with how these two cultures interact, intersect, and make sense of each other's religious beliefs (or not). Bethia's father considers it his job to convert as many Native Americans as possible, and he is almost completely successful in this quest. The book's other main theme is looking at outsiders who are pushing at the edges of what is allowed for them, given the station, gender, and ethnicity that they are born.
The most interesting part of the book, to me, was her richly imagined historical detail. The early Martha's Vineyard she paints is beautiful, savage, and very interesting. To them, Boston was a dangerously long boat ride away, and most of the English there were there because they found the Puritans to be slightly too strict. In all my times visiting Martha's Vineyard, I had never considered this period, or the early Native Americans there (though with names like Chappaquidick, I really should have...)
Solidly recommend, especially if you enjoy historical fiction, or Geraldine Brook's work.
AZ
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