Caleb’s Crossing

Author: Geraldine Brooks

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Readers of fiction written by Geraldine Brooks always discover interesting details of the history of some part of the world. Caleb may be a Biblical name, but it was given to this Caleb by a Puritan, Calvanistic missionary, not by his parents. The setting is the east coast of North America in the seventeenth century.

In 1665, a young man from what is now Martha’s Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. His was the son of a chieftain of the Wompanoag. The young daughter of the charismatic missionary from whose perspective the book is written is a female in a patriarchal society. Women must provide, men and boys must be educated. At twelve, she encounters the young son of a chieftain, who will be later known as Caleb, and the two forge a tentative, secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island’s glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. Bethia’s minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the island’s strongest pawaaw, against whose ritual magic he must test his own beliefs.

In a journal written on scraps of paper, Bethia records her internal conflicts. How can she teach herself to exist within the narrow confines of the lives women in her world are expected to lead? Her quick mind seeks the knowledge that is imparted to her brother. Her domestic responsibilities are unreasonable, but she is loyal.

The triumph of “Caleb’s Crossing” is that Bethia succeeds as a convincing woman of her time, and also in communicating across centuries of change in circumstance, custom and language. She tells a story that is suspenseful and involving. It is also a story that is tragically recognizable and deeply sad.

I found the beginning of the book contrived. However, once connected with Harvard’s history, found it a worthwhile read.

Reviewed by Gayle Davidson
Odell Learning Resources Centre

The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett

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Haven't seen the movie, loved the book.

Stockett deals with a major topic by looking at an area that has largely been ignored in both documentary and fiction... domestic help in Southern USA during the 1960s. The topic? Racism. The big events surrounding the KKK and Martin Luther are in evidence, but as background. We hear about a protest march, about some events surrounding a forced school de-segregation, and a black American is murdered by whites near where the story takes place. However the bulk of this long novel is about the equally rancid and devastating racism present on an hourly and daily basis in the relationship between white women and the black servants they employ. The only other work I can recall that touches on this was The Colour Purple, though perhaps I'm less likely to come across such material as white Australian male.

While the author has a very definite point to make, the story works because the story is intriguing and the characters are interesting and complex. The whites are not portrayed as universally unlikable (though there is a villain), and the black women are far from perfect (though there is a heroine).

The narrator's voice moves agilely and effectively between Aibileen, Minny and Miss Skeeter, with occasional interludes from a third person narrator. Aibileen and Minny are domestic servants, and Miss Skeeter is the young adult daughter of local farmers. She probably should have turned out similar to other white Southern women in either ignoring or actively becoming involved in the oppression of black domestic helpers, but has become distant from her mother and remembers with great affection the care lavished on her as a child by a domestic helper who has since mysteriously vanished.

She is not allowed the kudos of being anti-racist on principle. Her involvement in the main part of the story comes when her burning ambition to become a writer meets a stumbling block: a well placed editor indicates that she will consider her manuscripts providing she can find something worth writing about... and circumstances result in the story of the book. Just to be clear for those who have not seen the movie, this book is actually about the writing of a book... partly by Miss Skeeter as she tells the stories of some of the less well educated women, and partly by Aibileen, who, it turns out, is an able writer herself.

I had to read this in short bursts, as I found the injustice of the working conditions, pay scales, and demeaning protocols difficult to take in large quantities. Still, one has a reasonable idea that at least some injustices will be righted before the end of the book. As matters reached a crescendo however I simply couldn't stop.

This is a book that has rich characterisation, intense drama and focuses on a very significant and thought provoking topic. There is no reason any teenager should not read this, and adults will love it: the sad and terrible reality of racism is confronting but the story is deeply engaging. For bibliophiles in particular this is a story about how writing and publishing can change lives and culture.

Andrew  Lack