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Caleb's Crossing

by Geraldine Brooks, Jennifer Ehle (Narrator)

3.78 · rating details · 7,548 ratings · 1,873 reviews

In this luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure, Geraldine Brooks once again takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. Bethia Mayfield, growing up in a tiny settlement amid pioneers and Puritans, is restless and curious, yearning for an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island'...more

Audio CD, 9 pages

Published May 3rd 2011 by Blackstone Audiobooks (first published January 1st 2011)

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May 15, 2011

Jeanette rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: all-fiction, america, four-star-fiction, historical-fiction

BETHIA'S CROSSING would be a title more indicative of the book's contents. Caleb is mostly a peripheral character.
Feisty Puritan girl finds devious ways of gaining the knowledge she craves but is denied simply because she is a female. First I ever heard of someone getting a college education via eavesdropping.

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Apr 24, 2011

Jill rated it

· review of another edition

What becomes of those who independently and courageously navigate the intellectual and cultural shoals that divide cultures? Is it truly possible to make those crossings without relinquishing one’s very identity?

Geraldine Brooks poignantly explores these questions in her latest novel, Caleb’s Crossing. The story is based on sketchy knowledge of the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk – the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College -- and a member of the Wampanoag tribe in w...moreWhat becomes of those who independently and courageously navigate the intellectual and cultural shoals that divide cultures? Is it truly possible to make those crossings without relinquishing one’s very identity?

Geraldine Brooks poignantly explores these questions in her latest novel, Caleb’s Crossing. The story is based on sketchy knowledge of the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk – the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College -- and a member of the Wampanoag tribe in what is now Martha’s Vineyard.

This is truly a work of imagination since the sources on Caleb’s brief, tragic, and remarkable life are scant. The voice belongs to the fictional Bethia Mayfield, a minister’s quick-minded daughter who gently (and sometimes, not so gently) defies the rigid expectations of a Calvinistic society that demand silence and obedience from its womenfolk.

As outsiders, both Bethia and Caleb – who meet on the cusp of adolescence – quickly bond and form a lifelong friendship. On the sly, Bethia absorbs the language and the cultures of the Wopanaak tribe while out in the field; at home, she secretly absorbs lessons that are meant for her brother Makepeace.

Eventually, both serendipitously find themselves at Cambridge. Caleb’s Harvard education – conducted in the classical languages of Latin, Greek and Hebrew – is funded by rich English patrons as an experiment as to whether “salvages” can be indoctrinated into Christian culture alongside the dismissive colonial elite. Bethia goes along with Caleb and Makepeace as indentured help, striving to remain in close proximity to scholars and avoid her fate as yet another small settlement farm wife.

There are plenty of twists and turns, trauma and heartbreak, celebrations and sadness along the way; after all, Geraldine Brooks already has a reputation as an absorbing story teller who is able to imaginatively use history to fictional ends. And it would be unfair to even allude to some of these page-turning plot developments.

The themes, though, are fair game. This novel particularly shines when it touches upon matters of faith, which rely heavily upon John Cotton, Jr.’s account of his conversations with native islanders in the 1660s missionary journals (according to the author in her epilogue). The pantheistic view of the medicine men is placed in a high-stakes battle against strict and judgmental Calvinism time and again. Bethia muses, “It galls me, when I catch a stray remark from the master, or between the older English pupils, to the effect that the Indians are uncommonly fortunate to be here. I have come to think it is a fault in us, to credit what we give in such a case, and never to consider what must be given up in order to receive it.”

Ms. Brooks drums that point home – sometimes a bit too firmly, not relying enough on the reader to form his or her own conclusions. Still, there is intense observation in the “civilizing” of Caleb’s crossing to the world inhabited uneasily by Bethia. She reflects, “In that shimmering, golden light I saw the wild boy I had met here four summers past, no longer wild, nor boy. The hair was cut short and plain, the fringed deer hide leggings replaced with sensible black serge. The wampum ornaments were gone, the bare mahogany arms sheathed now in billowing linen. Yet neither was the youth who stood before me some replica of a young Englishman…” The story of Caleb and Bethia is part of an age-old battle of repressive and misguided individuals who callously use religion to assert dominancy, superiority, and control over others.

As a result, destiny and preordination wrestle as the boundaries of both cultures are movingly explored in a voice that may be described as “period language.” From the natural beauty of an early Martha’s Vineyard to the drafty dormitories of Harvard College, this fictional work includes a wallop of historical fact. Those who have thrilled to other Geraldine Brooks’ absorbingly told novels – March, Year of Wonders, People of the Book—will find yet one more reason to rejoice.
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Jun 01, 2011

Barbara rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 17th-century, new-england, native-american, first-reads-favorites, historical-fiction, published-in-2011, in-colonial-america, read-in-2011

OK, I was just adding a few things to the review that I posted yesterday, and somehow I deleted the whole review (except the last two short paragraphs!!!!!) Well, it's okay, because I really loved this book, but I felt that my review wasn't strong enough, so now I have to start from scratch and rewrite the entire review. For now, I have to get back to work, so I'll be back later or tomorrow to write another review.

I absolutely loved "Caleb's Crossing" and I strongly recomm...more

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May 10, 2011

Juliana rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Lovers of historical fiction, emotional reads, and strong female narrators

Shelves: 4-half-stars, fiction, historical-fiction, 17th-century, 1660s, 1670s, american-historical-fiction, american-literature, native-american-historical-fiction, usa-and-native-americans, book-club-reads, book-within-book-story-within-story, death-and-grief, difficult-emotional-read, family-and-relationships, frontier-novel, women-in-history, h-a-f-npr, set-in-usa, set-in-usa-massachusetts, usa-colonial-period, colonial-fiction, race-relations, 2011-reads, 2011-may-reads, religion-and-spirituality, 0-reviewed, tragedy, womens-fiction, colonialism-in-america, colonialism, strong-female-narrator, 0-wishlist-buy-in-dead-tree-form, library-book, 4-to-5-stars, challenge-2011-rrrc-a-to-z-heroines, challenge-2011-rrrc-a-to-z-heroes, challenge-2011-mine-regular-books, 2011-reads-my-favorites-of-the-year, challenge-2011-bb-the-50-states, sad-emotional-in-a-good-way

Deeply affecting novel (4.5 stars)

Absolutely stunning book. I read from page 63 to the end in one sitting because I just could not put it down. Utterly lovely and heartbreaking.

Bethia, the narrator, is a strong female voice and beautifully written. The other characters are vividly drawn and just as affecting. The way Brooks has written the book - from three points in Bethia's life, but looking back on what has happened to bring her to that point - is very skilfully done and p...moreDeeply affecting novel (4.5 stars)

Absolutely stunning book. I read from page 63 to the end in one sitting because I just could not put it down. Utterly lovely and heartbreaking.

Bethia, the narrator, is a strong female voice and beautifully written. The other characters are vividly drawn and just as affecting. The way Brooks has written the book - from three points in Bethia's life, but looking back on what has happened to bring her to that point - is very skilfully done and provides an arc to the narrative that gives the reader a sense of completeness. That she has used the small amount she uncovered about this real man's life oh so long ago to write this book shows her remarkable imagination and her talent for creating lives and whole histories from small kernels of truth.

Caleb and Bethia's lives intersect and cross over one another in both magical and tragic ways, but it is representative of the two very different worlds they come from and what so often happened upon these worlds' meeting. There is a true beauty to their friendship and story that even now, as I am writing this, brings me to tears.

Both characters are struggling to find their place in their ever-changing world. Bethia is trying to balance her identity as a Christian woman with that of a seeker of knowledge who craves and rejoices in learning; her conversations on this topic with others and her own inner thoughts and desires provide us with very interesting insight into how women's education and a woman's place were viewed at the time. Caleb is trying to stay true to the spirits and the Wampanoag way of life, while also finding a place for himself and his people so that they may survive these newcomers and the unstoppable change they bring. The dialogue between him and Bethia regarding their separate religions and traditions, as well as Bethia's own reflections, gives rise to very thought-provoking issues regarding faith, religion, spirituality, and culture. Is it possible to wed two different ways of thinking, two different belief systems? Does an attempt to do so automatically compromise one or both? How do we stay true to ourselves and our history, while also adapting in order to survive?

I took Caleb's Crossing out from the library, but will want to buy my own copy. It's an emotionally engaging and deeply moving work that I know I will want to reread. Raw as it left me feeling, I know this story will stay with me for many, many days, causing me to question and wonder.(less)

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Sep 23, 2011

Sisimka rated it

· review of another edition

The language of this book is simply astounding. I have found myself enthralled by Geraldine Brooks' writing before, but she attained a new level here. When I think of the research required for her to voice Bethia so authentically, and then render it in a way that makes sense to a modern reader, I am properly impressed.

Entwined with the study of language, fictional and real, is the story of two young people from very different worlds who each look to learn about the other with varying...more

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Jul 15, 2011

Julie Ekkers rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

I have read nearly all of Geraldine Brooks' books (fiction and non), and have really enjoyed all that I have read. Caleb's Crossing just didn't do it for me. I thought it started slow, but then once it got going, I was very much into it--enjoying the strong female character who is smart and ahead of her time (something I think Brooks has done well in the past). I also enjoyed the exploration of the tension created for and between the two main characters by different religious experiences. Bu...more

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May 12, 2011

Christina White rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: goodreads-giveaways, literary-fiction, historical-fiction

4.5 STARS! Wow!

I must say that I have not been the biggest fan of historical fiction, but I may be now. I started this book slowly, struggling with the flow of language used back in the 1600's. Then it was like I entered a time machine and I was right there. I would close the book literally thinking thoughts in that same form of speech an hour after! I cried at the end and I can tell I will be thinking of the characters for a long time to come. I am native and was born and raise...more

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Jul 16, 2011

Fiona rated it

· review of another edition

I ended Geraldine Brooks novel with regret which I was surprised to find. At first I wondered if I would become as engaged with it as I'd hoped, having enjoyed People of the Book, March so much. However after remonstrating with myself a little, I was rewarded.

In Caleb's Crossing Ms Brooks comes nearer to Margaret Atwood's greatest literary achievements than Margaret Atwood has managed in several of her own more recent novels and I think it's fair to draw the comparison for many reason...moreI ended Geraldine Brooks novel with regret which I was surprised to find. At first I wondered if I would become as engaged with it as I'd hoped, having enjoyed People of the Book, March so much. However after remonstrating with myself a little, I was rewarded.

In Caleb's Crossing Ms Brooks comes nearer to Margaret Atwood's greatest literary achievements than Margaret Atwood has managed in several of her own more recent novels and I think it's fair to draw the comparison for many reasons, not the least of which are the staggering scope of their creative talent and their critical acclaim. But enough of Ms Atwood!

In Caleb's Crossing, the writing in the style of the era is meticulously researched and memorable without being cumbersome. There is also such confidence in handling of the 1st person narrative, that of a woman who is intelligent but without rights of education or self determination. The depiction of the pedagogy of the day and the teaching of the Classics is outstanding. The genesis of Harvard too is interesting, and not just as the locus of where Caleb is educated in the classics and slotted into the harsh confines of a white, Puritan society in the New World.

Those seeking a novel with a predictable romance between the two main characters may be surprised at how Ms Brooks deals with that possibility and I applaud her willingness to explore romantic love differently and to not have the story-telling mechanics of that dominating a far more important message.

Most importantly to me, and simplistically speaking, it's a story written in the new millennium with the "noble savage" as its central literary metaphor, made brutally clear as we read of the fate of the colonised (Caleb and his community) versus the prosperity of the colonisers (Bethia and her community). (I think that Ms Brooks possibly indulges that myth a little too much but there you go). And the main setting, Martha's Vineyard, emerges with a beautifully described persona, which is also in keeping with the evolving literary themes of the day.

These are hardly new themes but it's what I took most from this novel. The lessons drawn from Caleb's "crossing" are painful and extremely sad. Societies seemed compelled, both then and now, to eradicate all evidence of the "other" culture in order to demonstrate that homogeneity is seemingly preferable to respect for differences and uniqueness. Insodoing, the literary myth of the "noble savage" perished along with its inspiration. I'd be a little surprised if other readers did not also feel regret when the story ended whether they drew these conclusions or not. I'll be interested to read other reviews.(less)

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Jun 26, 2011

Schmacko rated it

· review of another edition

Geraldine Brooks has a way with history, making it a powerful force in her fiction.

After her luminous Pulitzer-Prize-winning March, she in on that list of authors I will always read. March told the “lost” story of Little Women: the father who went into the Civil War as a pacifist minister and abolitionist and came back home (in Alcott’s words) “haunted.” Brook’s People of the Book was about a haggadah, an ancient Jewish holy book, and its extravagant history. These books (I haven’t ...moreGeraldine Brooks has a way with history, making it a powerful force in her fiction.

After her luminous Pulitzer-Prize-winning March, she in on that list of authors I will always read. March told the “lost” story of Little Women: the father who went into the Civil War as a pacifist minister and abolitionist and came back home (in Alcott’s words) “haunted.” Brook’s People of the Book was about a haggadah, an ancient Jewish holy book, and its extravagant history. These books (I haven’t read her first yet) give a strong sense of an author who loves to do the research, turning it into enjoyable fiction, passing her passion on to the reader.

That being said, I don’t feel Brooks has yet returned to the same ethically complex and emotional charged high ground that won her the Pulitzer for March. That book was not only historically fascinating (though even Brooks admits she sometimes fudged with history to make a good read). March also asked a question about moral absolutes and their price, and it told a heartfelt tale of belief and its price, of nobility with its attendant victories and failures.

Caleb’s Crossing is about the first Native American who graduated from Harvard. We forget that Harvard is older than America. That scholar was Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, from the Wampanoag tribe of Martha’s Vineyard (before it was Martha’s). He graduated in 1665. Very little is known of Caleb’s life, but that’s where Brooks steps in, filling in the gaps, creating a rich history.

That being said, this is also where Brooks makes a misstep for me. The narrator of the story is Bethia, a local Vineyard girl whose minister father is trying to bring Puritanism and Christianity to the Wampanoag. The minister, who also teaches, is a primary reason Caleb goes to Harvard, according to Brooks. The Native American is given an opportunity of learning that Bethia isn’t. Bathia has to sneak around, eavesdropping and memorizing her father’s lessons to her loutish brother. She secrets books. She silently rails against the bigotry and sexism of her era and her family’s religious beliefs. Bethia is stuck, so embroiled in the dogma even she doesn’t realize how squelched her natural affinity for learning is. She steals away papers, writing this lost history.

OK, so I get it. I get that the sexism that Bethia suffers is a lot like the discrimination Caleb and his tribe suffers. Caleb tries to bridge the two worlds; he’s given more opportunity, but it’s a position that forces him to face racism and to hide many of his own natural beliefs that Brooks strongly hints may be better than the Puritan ones. Bethia is the same. The problem is that this is an overused structure, or at least an obvious one. We know Americans (and pre-Americans) have a long history of xenophobia and misogyny, and we know we’ve justified our hateful beliefs with religion.

Brooks even goes so far as to hint at the passion these two outcasts feel for each other. It’s one scarlet letter from being a cliché.

The problem with this approach is that the author adopts the same “I’m right, and they’re wrong” approach that she accuses of her antagonists. Yes, right now, we can judge and say that Puritan sexism and discrimination did harm. And we can see how modern religious belief can do this. Are we comfortable slinging judgment to people who didn’t know any different? Might we also have lost something that they knew about simplicity and the power of faith? This book is a wholesale dismissal of the religion as purely tyrannical, sexist and racist (except for maybe the note that they did support education, for white males…) In contrast, the Wampanoag spirituality is free and wonderful and tree-huggy. Both Puritans and natives lack in scientific and medical knowledge, and both are riddled with superstition; yes, we know that. I wish Brooks could’ve been more complex than that., something about how people don’t know better, something about the power and price of integrated belief.

However, Brooks is such a brilliant writer, that she even makes this flaw mostly work. She describes the daily life in detail. She allows her characters some semblance of the language, so that it reads like an actual history. She finds words like “salvages” for the tribe, or “tegs” for the sheep. The emotional lives of her characters seem real, and she subtly tells us what daily life was like for Caleb and Bethia. Finally, Brooks also reaches some of the emotional heights that she soared through in March.

I just feel that Bethia is a typical narrator, and the themes are typical. It would’ve been lovely to hear from the minister father, a man who seemed to see some beauty in the Native beliefs but held on to his evangelism of Christianity. There are also Harvard scholars in the book who also seem to walk that thin line between the limits of their age and a willingness to help everyone reach their potential. A local farm by also might have a unique perspective. These other characters would’ve also made fascinating, more complex voices than just Bethia’s. The juxtaposition between their views, Caleb’s struggles, and Bethia’s insight would’ve been gripping.

I’ll still keep reading Brooks. I also keep hoping she gets back to the type of moral conundrum and complexity that drove March.

PS: As a side note, I love that the book’s pages are a slightly ivory color, and that the type font looks old, heavy with serifs. It brings to the reader a sense of the “oldness’ of this story. It was a nice touch by the bookmakers.
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Jun 05, 2011

Karen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, us-multicultural, feminism, coming-of-age

Brooks takes scant information about the first native American to graduate from Harvard and expands it into a novel-length work about the struggles of people crossing from one world to another--and being stuck in between.

As other reviewers have noted, the novel really focuses more on the narrator, Bethia, who is also from Martha's Vineyard, except that she is of English ancestry. Bethia also yearns for education, but as a woman, she is denied full access to the opportunities that he...moreBrooks takes scant information about the first native American to graduate from Harvard and expands it into a novel-length work about the struggles of people crossing from one world to another--and being stuck in between.

As other reviewers have noted, the novel really focuses more on the narrator, Bethia, who is also from Martha's Vineyard, except that she is of English ancestry. Bethia also yearns for education, but as a woman, she is denied full access to the opportunities that her father, her brother, and even her native American friend are afforded. This plight is addressed so fully that the novel's subtitle might be "A Room of Bethia's Own."

I haven't read any author interviews yet, so I am curious as to why Brooks chose to focus so much on Bethia? As I read, I imagined the author's answers: 1) Brooks could imagine the female perspective more fully 2) Brooks could see parallel inequities for women that enrich the novel beyond just documenting the inequities based on race 3) Brooks is a fan of Bradstreet and Hutchinson and wanted to weave in those biographies and texts, but without Bethia such inclusions would seem odd. 4) Brooks currently lives on Martha's Vineyard and has gone on imaginative time travels as Bethia, and 5) Other possibilities I haven't imagined?

Whatever her motivation, it was interesting to inhabit the island centuries ago, interesting to eavesdrop on the conversations between a white woman and a native American man -- each trying to forge an identity and a destiny before God, nature and their fellow humans, and interesting to walk through the sites of learning they inhabited: the wilds of Martha's Vineyard, the hearth, the boarding school, the early classrooms at Harvard. Even a library is the setting of a key love scene, so central is learning to the themes of this book.

While misnamed, I do think Brooks did a marvelous job bringing to readers the life (although most of it imagined, and most of it observed by another) of an important native American while she also highlights the hardships faced by seventeenth century white women living on the frontier and pushing for their place in a [white] man's world.
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Nov 02, 2011

Kim rated it

· review of another edition

Have heard some comments by fellow book clubbers that they don't enjoy the way this is written; in language dating back to 1665 of English Puritans of the region that is now called Martha's Vineyard today.

It starts out by the viewpoint of the young daughter of a Puritan family, whose father is ministering strict Calvinism to the local Native tribes.

The book is a historical fiction account of the original first Native American to graduate Harvard.

After finish...more

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May 12, 2011

Elizabeth rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, favorites

Oh.

Em.

Gee.

I am hooked and I am only on page 27...

Finished this absorbing story last night. Thoughtful and SO closely observed. Stunning writing. Wonderful narrator. Goodness. LOVED IT.

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Jun 22, 2011

Jean rated it

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Shelves: mind-blowers

In 1665, Caleb, an American Indian becomes the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Geraldine Brooks takes this scant piece of factual information and weaves a great historical novel of Caleb and a group of fictional charcaters through the ups and down of Caleb's journey. The journey is as much Bethis's, the narrator, as it is Caleb's. Bethia, is a strong-willed girl and she and Caleb watch each others backs.. A more than pleasant read.

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Feb 14, 2012

Susan rated it

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I postponed reading Brooks's latest novel because I am a huge fan of her writing and wanted the appropriate moment to savor her work. I wasn't disappointed. Her richly imagined tale of Bethia Mayfield and the Wampanoag lad Caleb was so detailed, so well-wrought, that it served as both an entertainment and a history lesson. Ah, but there I struggled a bit. As it happens, I am well-versed in the early history of Martha's Vineyard. Brooks's transmogrification of names, events and even geograph...more

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Feb 11, 2012

Debbi rated it

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Recommends it for: People who like historical fiction

I've read (and enjoyed) every book that Geraldine Brooks has written, and while this is not my favorite one, its very interesting.

I thought (from the title) that the book was about Caleb, the first Native American to attend Harvard. Instead, its told from the point of view of Bethia, a young girl who lives on what is today Martha's Vineyard, as part of a religious community that did not want to be part of the "mainland". Bethis's life is a hard one, very constricted by the m...more

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Feb 08, 2012

Gina rated it

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Geraldine Brooks has a unique talent to take small bits and pieces of history and through painstaking research and an inventive imagination turn them into a compelling story. In Caleb's Crossing she takes the fact that in 1665 Caleb Cheeshahteamauk was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. This is virtually the only fact known about Caleb but from that small nugget of information Brooks creates a believable story of how Caleb crossed from the Native American culture to that of the ...more

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Feb 06, 2012

Robert Strandquist rated it

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Shelves: while-in-belgium

Brooks is a gymnastic writer using a range of early colonial voices to paint the small world of the story set on the island of what we call Martha's Vineyard. Historical ficiton allows a writer either to embellish or omit what is convenient or worthy of the story's drama and in this genre, Brooks does both. Personally, I found the plot, settings, and characters wonderfully compelling. The narrator's maturity moves along the plot's development by moving the diction and syntax along a line from si...more

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Jan 19, 2012

Sidna Bookout rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am not a fan of Geraldine Brooks' writing. I read "Year of Wonders" for a book discussion group. I did not enjoy it at all and would not have suffered through it if it were not for the group discussion. I started "March," but it was so dismal, I finally sold it to a used book store. Both of my book discussion groups are reading "Caleb's Crossing" this year--one this month and the other one in March so I decided I had to read it.

Since I didn't want to sp...moreI am not a fan of Geraldine Brooks' writing. I read "Year of Wonders" for a book discussion group. I did not enjoy it at all and would not have suffered through it if it were not for the group discussion. I started "March," but it was so dismal, I finally sold it to a used book store. Both of my book discussion groups are reading "Caleb's Crossing" this year--one this month and the other one in March so I decided I had to read it.

Since I didn't want to spend the money to buy it, I got a copy from the library. I started it a number of times, but couldn't get into it. I finally got the audio version from the library and listened to it while I was doing errands around town. I don't know why the title is "Caleb's Crossing." Caleb is a secondary character in the book. We never see anything from his point of view or get any insight into what he is thinking. We are told some facts of his life, but we don't really get to know him. If this were a movie, the character would be considered a supporting role.

The book is really about Bethia's life and her family. The story is told by Bethia from her point of view. The book was read on 10 discs. I wasn't interested in what happened to the characters until the seventh disc. If I had been reading for pleasure, I would have given up long before that.
The book is as depresssing as most of Brooks' writing since all of the characters except for Bethia and her husband and child die. Some of the deaths just seemed to be for effect.

Jennifer Eble, the reader, was terrible! She pronounced every syllable like a second or third grader who is just learning to read. Especially annoying was her pronunciation of the word "a." She said it like the letter "a" instead of the way most people say "a" in speech. Thankfully, there wasn't much dialog in the book. Eble didn't even try to do voices. I assumed that was because she was not able to do them so I was surprised to read that she is an actress and had a supporting role in "The King's Speech." I would not recommend this book to anyone. In our discussions, I'll be interested to hear why people liked it. (less)

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Jan 18, 2012

Laura rated it

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Shelves: high-school, women

This extremely well-written and fascinating book is narrated by a feisty pilgrim girl in the early years of the colonies and tells the story of Caleb, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard.

Brooks always manages to convey a palpable sense of space in her historical fiction, and this is no different: I was charmed by what would later be known as Martha's Vineyard but which is only ever called "the island" in the book. The narrator, Bethia, is an fully rounded ch...more

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Jan 14, 2012

Elizabeth Lhuede rated it

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Shelves: australian-author, australian-women-writers-challenge

Extract: "For the novel’s strengths, I look to the narrator Bethia, the portrayal of early settlement life in America, the previously unknown (to me) story of the first indigenous scholar of Harvard University, the tensions between Bethia’s book-loving character and her role as a woman growing up under a religious patriarchy, as well as Brooks’ depiction of the devastation brought to the Wopanaak tribe of Noepe (now Martha’s Vineyard) of European settlement. In terms of my enjoyment of the ...more

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Jan 12, 2012

Sharon rated it

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The focus of this book is on Caleb, a historical Native American (Wampanoag) known for being the first to graduate from Harvard three and a half centuries ago, but seen through the eyes of a (fictional) young woman. Based on a few spare details, you have a chance to see a rare moment in American history when Native and immigrant Americans managed a peace, despite the constant and annoying evangelical efforts of the English.

I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. It is we...more

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Jan 10, 2012

Susy rated it

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I loved this novel far more than I expected. Unlike People of the Book which changes characters with different generations of citizens who lives intersected with The Book (the Hagaddah), this novel is based on a shard of history about the first person from a native American tribe, the Wopanaak of what we now call Martha's Vineyard, to graduate from Harvard in the 17th century. I hesitate to even refer to Caleb as a native American since the land where the story takes place was a colony of Engl...more

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Jan 10, 2012

Gwen rated it

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Geraldine Brooks’s latest novel is presented as the journal of Bethia Mayfield. The Mayfield family cultivates a small farm in the seventeenth century Puritan settlement of Great Harbor on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, which is home to the Wampanoag tribe. Although Bethia is denied the Latin education her older brother receives as he prepares for a clerical career, she learns as much as she can by listening in on his lessons while she completes her daily chores. Ever curious, twelve-year-ol...more

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Jan 05, 2012

Marlyn rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical

In 1665, a young Wampanoag man from what is now known as Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. Geraldine Brooks takes this fact and builds a novel around it.

The story is told from the point of view of (fictional) Bethia Mayfield, a Puritan girl growing up on the island, part of a splinter group of Puritans who are not quite as strict as most. Intelligent and fond of learning, Bethia is disappointed when her father tells her she is too old to con...more

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Jan 01, 2012

Deborah Ward rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

This is a fantastic book by an author I had not previously been exposed to, Ms. Brooks has clearly taken the time to examine not only primary sources, but has also captured the sense of place, gender roles and a believable day-to-day experience for 17th and 18th century inhabitants of Cambridge, Boston and Martha's Vineyard. Here she weaves the story of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, the first member of the Wopanaak tribe to graduate from Harvard University through the eyes of a young woman who comes t...more

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Dec 26, 2011

Jill Gilbert rated it

· review of another edition

This was one of my favorite books of 2011. I heard the author interviewed on NPR, so when the book was available for electronic loan at the library, I decided to give it a try.

The novel is told through the journal entries of a young girl, Bethia, who is growing up on Martha's Vineyard in the mid 1650's. She is the daughter of a minister/missionary and his wife, who are making a difficult life for themselves on the island. Bethia is a sharp girl and apt pupil who is denied an educat...more

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Dec 17, 2011

Beth rated it

· review of another edition

Historical fiction based on scantlydocumented history, the book is written in language of the 1600's. At first, this effects slow going, but in time one begins to move along. Bethia lives on Martha's Vineyard and in being herself, not a proper girl of the time, who is seen and not heard, she wanders along beaches and into woods, finally coming upon an indian whom she calls Caleb. The two of them enjoy sharing knowledge of their own culture for some years. and eventually, that means that Cale...more

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Dec 06, 2011

Andi rated it

· review of another edition

I'm obsessed with Brooks. I was fortunate enough to see her speak at Martha's Vineyard (her home) about this book and her life. She is phenomenal in every way. This book may not be as good as "People of the Book" or "Year of Wonder" but it is right up there. It is about the first Wampanag Indian, who happens to live on Martha's Vineyard, to graduate from Harvard. That is a true fact-- the story, however, is fiction. Brooks does such an amazing job of transporting the reader t...more

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Nov 05, 2011

Barbara Burd rated it

· review of another edition

I'm a fan of Geraldine Brooks, so was really looking forward to reading this book. However, I thought the book was mis-named since there was so little of the story that actually addressed Caleb. As she did in Year of Wonder, Brooks narrates the story through the eyes of a young girl, this time named Bethia, who is unusually bright and desires the education that is denied her because of her gender. The story focuses more on the life of Bethia than Caleb. Brooks' research is impeccable and in the ...more

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Oct 30, 2011

Louise at The Reading Experiment rated it

· review of another edition

Don’t be misled by the title and jacket description of this book.

They will have you believe that Caleb’s Crossing is about the first Native American to graduate from Harvard University in 1665.

Don’t get me wrong – this is central to the story and is the reason Geraldine Brooks wrote this book.

However, alongside it is the equally powerful story of the book’s narrator, Bethia Mayfield, and her detailed account of life as a woman in the mid-17th Century.

I lo...more

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About Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks (born 1955) is an Pulitzer Prize-winning, Australian-American journalist and author.

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“I felt the reckless abandon of one who knows she stands already among the damned. "Why not, then, another sin?” — 2 people liked it

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