Caleb's Crossing

Geraldine Brooks has done it again. She has created an imaginary character who lives in an authentic time, interacting with real people in a time that Brooks herself can only imagine. To do so, she must spend many hours of research to get the time and the characters just right. This time it is her own Martha Vineyard's area. She says in her introduction that she read about a Native American who attended Harvard and thought, probably 1960's, but is shocked to find out that this Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, a member of the Wôpanàak tribe of Noepe (Martha's Vineyard) graduated from Harvard in 1665. Her imaginary character is Bethia Mayfield, a minister's daughter, who grows up alongside Caleb. She finds in him the sympathetic brother and friend she did not have in her own brother, Makepeace Mayfield. She listens to her brother's lessons, learns to read and yearns for an education of her own. I cannot imagine the setting, the place of this young girl who is headstrong and intelligent, yet is being prepared to become the wife of a farmer and to be his helpmate. There are many twists in this story of early America, many of them based on true events. I found Geraldine Brooks' interpretation excellent and compelling.

Australian author, Geraldine Brooks won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2006 for her novel, March. Other works of fiction include Year of Wonders and People of the Book.