Photo courtesy of GeraldineBrooks.com
After finishing “Caleb’s Crossing” by Geraldine Brooks, I quickly searched online for reviews. I was eager for more — I simply did not want to let go of the story or the characters. I can assure you, this novel is garnering some high praise.
Perhaps what is most moving about “Caleb’s Crossing,” is that we already know how the history of the people portrayed within the novel played out. This is not to say that all of the characters are based on historical figures, however. Some are real, others are fictionalized. But Brooks, a 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner, has done her homework, and does her best to portray historical events as recorded and archived.
In 1660, Bethia Mayfield is living within her grandfather’s community on Martha’s Vineyard — a refuge from the stringent customs of John Winthrop’s Massachusetts colony. The indigenous Wampanoag population have relinquished a portion of their land to Bethia’s grandfather and fellow English settlers, though Bethia stipulates the Native American elders had little understanding of the details of the deal made before her birth. Continue reading
The Ornamented Line 