Books You May Not Like: Caleb's Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks

What what!  I was out of town and while I was gone my wife managed to commandeer my computer for her own purposes.  Now at last I am back, I have my wondrous dictation transcribing machine back in my possession, and I am ready to write. 

Or maybe not.  Nothing has really changed much since I made my last post.  We are still wrangling about raising the debt ceiling, there is still not quite football next year (though, as always, a deal seems likely), there is for now no basketball next year, and Palin keeps promising to deepen her relationship with the American people but just when you think she is going to invite upstairs for "coffee" she says "you know, I am not sure I am ready to declare my intentions yet, but we should really get together again soon".  So frustrating. 

So, since there is nothing much else to talk about, I figure I would tell you about Geraldine Brook's latest book, Caleb's Crossing, which I read while I was gone. 

It was awesome. 

It is a book that is based very, very loosely on the life of one of the first Native American students to attend Harvard, whose name was Caleb.  The book is written from the point of view of a young woman, Bethia Mayfield, who befriends Caleb on Martha's Vineyard in the later 1600's.  It is written in the form of diary entries she makes at various moments of crisis in her life, and all of them in some way involve Caleb.

This book is about so many things.  The question of whether Native Americans could be assimilated into European culture or if one culture would reign supreme over the other; The standing of women in Puritan New England; The simple joys and heartbreaking tragedies of colonial life; The triumph of dignity over prejudice; The Nature of God. 

The way in which Brooks chose to present this book made it incredibly personal and uncommon powerful, and I think it shows a return to form for her.  I enjoyed her first two books immensely, but thought People of the Book was not Brooks at her best (though even then it was still Excellent).  This book has only further cemented her status as one of my favorite authors.   

So yes, it was awesome.  Powerful, sometimes excruciatingly sad, sometimes wondrously joyful.  I can't recommend this book highly enough, especially if you are a lover of our Nation's early History.