Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
HarperCollins $39.99
Once again Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Geraldine Brooks takes a simple, barely known historical fact, fattens out and brings it to life so lyrically you feel transported back in time.
Caleb is a Native American boy from the Wampanoag Tribe. When we meet him he's roaming the island of Noepe (now
Martha's Vineyard) in 17th century America, wild and free as a young deer.
His story is told through the voice of Bethia, a missionary's daughter of a similar age who, with her family, is living on part of the island which has been lawfully sold to European settlers. In some ways Bethia is the more discriminated against of the two.
Most English girls born in 1665 would not have been allowed to explore the island alone as she was. But Bethia had a mother who wanted her inquisitive, intelligent daughter to experience freedom. And she did, often on Speckle the pony.
Much of Bethia's time was spent observing the Wampanoag families who lived nearby.
She was fascinated by their painted faces, strange dances and a culture that allowed them to have fun. The boy with whom she managed to forge a secret friendship came from the world of pawaaws or medicine men/sorcerers. He calls her Storm Eyes, she calls him Caleb. She also teaches herself to speak Wampanoag and, almost as quickly, he learns English.
A few miles away from the Wampanoag families, Bethia lives enmeshed in religion and puritan values. Life was expected to be hard, earnest and lived in the shadow of an all-knowing, all-powerful God. Although she strived to be pure, in her own eyes she often failed, blaming herself for the family's many disasters, including her mother's death in childbirth.
Bethia's highly educated, kind and devoted missionary father sets about converting the Wampanoag Tribe, Caleb with them. He fails to realise that Bethia has already started the job.
While Caleb's Crossing is a work of fiction, it is also factually accurate. Brooks' novel is based on a notation on a map of the island of Martha's Vineyard, where she now lives. That notation which sparked her attention marked the birthplace of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College 1665.
Brooks also researched the history of the Mayhew missionary family who settled on the island in the early 1600s, presumably as the historical basis for Bethia's story. Based on these facts, augmented by a dollop of local knowledge, hours poring over every letter and document from the time that she could find, plus a brilliant imagination, she has come up with this absorbing novel.
Her invented storyline, with its grand passions, loves, hates and disasters, avoids the obvious options. Carefully she delves into the tricky worlds of Native American custom and magic and the English settlers' unquestioning dedication to their unforgiving Christian faith.
Brooks' ear and eye for detail reek of authenticity. She writes in an evocative, descriptive yet minimal style that reflects the diction, rhythm and language of the age. The voice belongs to Bethia, who calls savages "salvages" and describes herself as "weak as a mewling kitten".
The undeniably honest snapshot of the level of women's subjugation to men is alarming.
Life for Bethia is drudgery from way before dawn until she clears up after dinner. The family suffered harshly as they fight the elements, including the ferocious sea between the island and the mainland colony of Massachusetts Bay. One arresting fragment comes when Bethia encourages her family to garden the Native American way: not in hard-hoed rows, but with vegetables companion-planted together - corn supporting courgettes, squash suffocating weeds.
But Reverend Mayfield is focused on converting the natives, rather than gardening. He decides that the education of Caleb will be one of his major projects. Within a year Caleb is at Cambridge Latin School, among the colonial elite.
Bethia, for entirely different reasons, is not far behind. She, though easily as intelligent as Caleb, is indentured, by her brother Makepeace, to work as the mens' housekeeper for four full years, in payment for his own attendance at the school. And so she watches and supports Caleb as he crosses between cultures.
A truly fascinating book, readers will learn enormous amounts about early America, proselytising missionaries, and the harsh early history of Harvard. Most of all we learn how, in the name of God, unknowing and well-meaning missionaries helped dismantle the language and culture of Native Americans.
Carroll du Chateau is an Auckland reviewer.
