[RNY]∎ Read Caleb Crossing A Novel Geraldine Brooks 9780670021048 Books

Caleb Crossing A Novel Geraldine Brooks 9780670021048 Books

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Caleb Crossing A Novel Geraldine Brooks 9780670021048 Books

What a wonderful book! It is a graphic lesson of living the history from the 1600's, the way of life for English missionaries who migrated to the Massachussetts coast to convert the Indians to their very short sighted, yet educational version of Christianity.
In this beautifully researched novel of fiction you will meet Bethia, the daughter of one of the missionaries whose association with Caleb, a young and brilliant Indian boy teaches her of the land and its gifts around her and the acceptance of hardship as a method of education. Their friendship accompanies them through the entire novel as each of them in their own way protect one another.
The story is filled with the hardships of those early years and it takes Bethia through the cruelty of this education which is not possible for her as a girl, then a woman who, with her strength and intellect is able to learn by listening secretly to the teaches of her father and others who follow him in this mission to educate. These lessons through tragedy and ancient superstitions lead her to Harvard College where she sees her boyhood friend become the first Native American to graduate from this stronghold of universities.
Research and imagination bring you to disbelief and disgust as you learn of life and the cruelties of it in the 15th century of the colonies.
Don't let the slow pace of the beginning stop you. Follow characters who fit the tale to the end. It is an education in itself!
This novel is an education in itself. It is a fine example of the early years in our country.


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Caleb Crossing A Novel Geraldine Brooks 9780670021048 Books Reviews

In the 1600's life in the MA colony was not for the faint of heart. This book centers around Bethia who we meet as a young girl. She is smart in fact smarter than her brother and her father knows it and he counsels her that she is smart enough because soon she will be married and she will have to allow her husband to make all decisions. Bethia becomes friends with a young man who is the 1st native American to graduate from Harvard (historical fact). The book is sad due to how hard life was in those days, so many of the characters die young along with the treatment of the native Americans. At the end the author provides her sources while she was researching the book which makes for an interesting read.
FYI, some spoilers in here!

So I've read all of Geraldine Brooks's novels, and really enjoyed them. 'Year of Wonders' definitely makes it onto my top 10 of historicals (if you ignore the absurd epilogue) and I am a fussy reader! After a few recent attempts at historicals that just didn't deliver, I bought this figuring, given the author, that it was a sure bet. Unfortunately, I was wrong. This book falls into that category of novels that too many good writers seem to put out when they've become famous enough that anything goes. It's as if they feel pressured to come up with another story, and the editors check out and sign off on a mediocre offering because it's going to sell regardless...eeech.

Don't get me wrong Brooks's prose in 'Caleb's Crossing' is still beautiful. But the story is, at best, confused, and at worst, tedious. As others have pointed out, this book has been disingenuously marketed as a story about the first native American to graduate from Harvard. In actuality, the novel skims the surface of Caleb's fascinating life, while focusing on a fictitious, oppressed-smart-girl narrator who's become a somewhat tedious stock character in Brooks's work. Which is sad, because this could have been an amazing study of parallel, marginalized lives in a colonial society if Bethia and Caleb had been given equal air-time.

Likewise, so much was suggested but left undeveloped in the plot, which could have made the novel much more interesting. The early relationship between Bethia and Caleb, for instance, suggested future romantic tension, which then entirely failed to materialize. Okay, 17th century puritan society would have precluded any serious relationship between these two; on the other hand, the relationship they DID form was equally improbable, as are a number of Bethia's actions by comparison. As in would a girl who would willfully swallow a hallucinogenic drink pilfered from a native medicine man really never even consider the romantic possibilities with her native best friend? And then, when a love interest for Bethia does eventually happen along, he's nowhere near as interesting as Caleb. I could never quite understand why she was overcome with lust for the irritating Samuel, while apparently impervious to it with Caleb. So many interesting secondary characters remained equally, frustratingly undeveloped - Makepeace, Anne, and Joel to name a few.

So, yes, a disappointment. I wish Brooks would go back and write Caleb's story from Caleb's point of view!
There was a very graphic scene that upset me so much that the rest of the book is lost. I read it several years ago but as soon as I saw the title on Book Bub again the scene came back to me like I'd read it yesterday. If you have a special place in your heart for defenseless animals be forewarned.
Brilliant. A deep look at the The early settlers in New England, and a relationship between an Indigenous First people's son, and a settler's daughter constrained by their cultures, but both in love with the wild nature of the land and the sea. Over the years an unlikely friendship leads them both into hardship and sacrifice, while honoring their silenced relationship. Caleb is wise, honorable and determined to learn the white man's harsh and punitive religious culture in order to learn how to save his people. He has great fortitude and a deep intelligence and forbearance in the face of cruelty, injustice, betrayals, and punishments.

The radical Pilgrim sect, secluded on an island, does not shine in glowing colors. I regret these may be some of my indoctrinated ancestors.
But a moving and compelling story of love, communication, and what people will give to maintain their own truth.
What a wonderful book! It is a graphic lesson of living the history from the 1600's, the way of life for English missionaries who migrated to the Massachussetts coast to convert the Indians to their very short sighted, yet educational version of Christianity.
In this beautifully researched novel of fiction you will meet Bethia, the daughter of one of the missionaries whose association with Caleb, a young and brilliant Indian boy teaches her of the land and its gifts around her and the acceptance of hardship as a method of education. Their friendship accompanies them through the entire novel as each of them in their own way protect one another.
The story is filled with the hardships of those early years and it takes Bethia through the cruelty of this education which is not possible for her as a girl, then a woman who, with her strength and intellect is able to learn by listening secretly to the teaches of her father and others who follow him in this mission to educate. These lessons through tragedy and ancient superstitions lead her to Harvard College where she sees her boyhood friend become the first Native American to graduate from this stronghold of universities.
Research and imagination bring you to disbelief and disgust as you learn of life and the cruelties of it in the 15th century of the colonies.
Don't let the slow pace of the beginning stop you. Follow characters who fit the tale to the end. It is an education in itself!
This novel is an education in itself. It is a fine example of the early years in our country.