Geraldine Brooks was born and raised in Australia. After moving to the USA she worked for eleven years on the Wall Street Journal, covering stories from some of the world’s most troubled areas, including Bosnia, Somalia and the Middle East. Her first novels `A Year of Wonders’ and `March have become international bestsellers, the latter earning Brooks the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She lives with her husband and son in rural Virginia and is currently a fellow at Harvard University.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Brooks (for March) delivers a splendid historical inspired by Caleb Cheeshahteaumauck, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. Brooks brings the 1660s to life with evocative period detail, intriguing characters, and a compelling story narrated by Bethia Mayfield, the outspoken daughter of a Calvinist preacher. While exploring the island now known as Martha's Vineyard, Bethia meets Caleb, a Wampanoag native to the island, and they become close, clandestine friends. After Caleb loses most of his family to smallpox, he begins to study under the tutelage of Bethia's father. Since Bethia isn't allowed to pursue education herself, she eavesdrops on Caleb's and her own brother's lessons. Caleb is a gifted scholar who eventually travels, along with Bethia's brother, to Cambridge to continue his education. Bethia tags along and her descriptions of 17th-century Cambridge and Harvard are as entertaining as they are enlightening (Harvard was founded by Puritans to educate the "English and Indian youth of this country," for instance). With Harvard expected to graduate a second Martha's Vineyard Wampanoag Indian this year, almost three and a half centuries after Caleb, the novel's publication is particularly timely. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Caleb, the first Native American graduate of Harvard College (class of 1665), struggles to find his place in diametrically opposed cultures. His story is dramatically narrated by the daughter of a Calvinist minister, who is also fighting puritanical strictures. (LJ 3/15/11) (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
In 1665 a young man from Marthas Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. This fragment of history is the basis for the latest novel by Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks. Calebs Crossing revolves around this young mans spiritual and intellectual elevation in the eyes of English society. Bearing witness to this civilising project is a minister s daughter, Bethia Mayfield, who, on the basis of gender, is denied the education she craves. Bethia and Caleb the son of a chieftain meet in the wilds of Marthas Vineyard as children and their clandestine but innocent encounters prove to be largely and mutually influential. Bethia teaches Caleb to read and strives to convert him to her Christian god, but he has just as much to offer her, as he shares island secrets and his native language. Caleb s wide eyed yet witty questioning of the Christian faith is compelling; their soulful and sweet exchanges are at the forefront of a quietly escalating tension between the native inhabitants and the gradually encroaching colonialists. As Bethia and Caleb grow older the divisions between them become more apparent; both are forced to subdue their natures in different ways. Bethias impending indenture as a housekeeper sparks a disagreement, which illuminates the diminishing options for both their futures. Such conversations between the pair evoke strong emotion and are a welcome release from the repression of Puritanism that dictates their behaviour. Reminiscent of Brooks debut novel Year of Wonders, wherein a bubonic plague outbreak is chronicled by an intelligent young maid, her latest fictional history sees Bethia grow from an uncertain minister s daughter-- striving for utter purity but plagued by doubt and failings--to a determined young woman who learns to exercise her intellect in whichever way she can. Bethias observation of Calebs triumphs and tribulations on the road to Harvard exposes both a warmth and distance between the pair. Her determination to document the role she plays in his journey bespeaks a desire for recognition. Calebs Crossing depicts the harshness of pioneer life and the rigidity of puritan values, tempered by the compassion and kindness of individuals. As the clash between cultures unfolds, loss of life, language and culture is a tragic inevitability that Bethia bears witness to on a personal level. Through the observations of a well-drawn protagonist Brooks conjures the disenfranchisement of an entire people. (See interview, page 38.) Portia Lindsay works at the UNSW Bookshop in Sydney
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