Caleb's Crossing

A Novel

By: Geraldine Brooks

Narrated by: Jennifer Ehle

A bestselling tale of passion and belief, magic and adventure from the author of The Secret Chord and of March, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Bethia Mayfield is a restless and curious young woman growing up in Martha's Vineyard in the 1660s amid a small band of pioneering English Puritans. At age twelve, she meets Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a secret bond that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia's father is a Calvinist minister who seeks to convert the native Wampanoag, and Caleb becomes a prize in the contest between old ways and new, eventually becoming the first Native American graduate of Harvard College. Inspired by a true story and narrated by the irresistible Bethia, Caleb’s Crossing brilliantly captures the triumphs and turmoil of two brave, openhearted spirits who risk everything in a search for knowledge at a time of superstition and ignorance.

Critic reviews

Praise for Caleb's Crossing

“Caleb’s Crossing could not be more enlightening and involving. Beautifully written from beginning to end, it reconfirms Geraldine Brooks’s reputation as one of our most supple and involving novelists.” —Jane Smiley, The New York Times Book Review

“Brooks filters the early colonial era through the eyes of a minister’s daughter growing up on the island known today as Martha’s Vineyard…[Bethia’s] voice – rendered by Brooks with exacting attention to the language and rhythm of the seventeenth century – is captivatingly true to her time.” —The New Yorker

“A dazzling act of the imagination. . .Brooks takes the few known facts about the real Caleb, and builds them into a beautifully realized and thoroughly readable tale…this is intimate historical fiction, observing even the most acute sufferings and smallest heroic gestures in the context of major events.” —Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe

“In Bethia, Geraldine Brooks has created a multidimensional, inspiring yet unpredictable character…Bethia’s forbearance, her quiet insistence, the way she creates her life using the best of whatever is handed to her, puts the struggles of American women today in perspective.” —Susan Salter Reynolds, The Los Angeles Times

“Original and compelling. . .[Brooks’ characters] struggle every waking moment with spiritual questions that are as real and unending as the punishing New England winters.”—Paul Chaat Smith, The Washington Post

An authentic voice

This novel offers us an authentic voice about a little know bit of Americana. The mid to late 1600's and 1700 is a new and interesting bit of time in our history; the early years of Harvard, and Cambridge, Mass., the effect of religious zealots on the early Americas, the early efforts by at least a few of the English immigrants to live with the native Americans is something we have heard too little about.

Brook's voice and use of language is a rich addition to this really beautiful novel with the germ of a real event as the catalyst.

Disappointing

What did you like best about Caleb's Crossing? What did you like least?

The story moved very slowly, although the writing was extremely good. But the poetic prose couldn't make up for the slow pace.

If you’ve listened to books by Geraldine Brooks before, how does this one compare?

I loved "March," which I read on Kindle. I love the historical settings in both books but did not find the characters in "Crossing" nearly as interesting.

Did Jennifer Ehle do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

The reading was average.

Was Caleb's Crossing worth the listening time?

Read "March" instead.

Marvelous Storytelling

What made the experience of listening to Caleb's Crossing the most enjoyable?

Ms Brooks has the novelist's gift of making you believe you are there, 400 years ago, seeing what Bethia sees, sharing her feelings of pain, love, frustration and passion for learning. The story inspires you to want to know more of those times, and how our early nation evolved at the grassroots level, and especially how at the expense of the Indians whose lands we presumed to be ours.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked to try to anticipate how all the characters would evolve into adulthood. Like much in life, then and now, the story is full of surprises, many of them not as we would hope for.

What about Jennifer Ehle’s performance did you like?

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I felt she did an excellent job with all the characters, most especially Bethia, and her particular style of formal speech.

If you could take any character from Caleb's Crossing out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I would love to meet Caleb, assuming I could speak his language. He seemed to be able to comprehend the true nature of both his native, and adopted, societies. But I would hope that he brought Bethia, as she is so full of spirit and love of life.

Good book hurt by the narrator

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend this book unless someone has a particular interest in early American life. It conveys well the discrimination faced by Native Americans and limited opportunities for women educationally and in control over their lives, but I didn't find the story particularly engaging.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I'd make the story a little less formulaic and predictable.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator took pains to enunciate every consonant of every word to the point that it became distracting and annoying. I had no problem with the language being of another era but the pronunciation did not come across as authentic, just stilted.

An Indian Friend

Well written and well read. A peek into our past as we took over the world with our ideas for the better. Was it truely better? What did we gain and what have we lost? Some things never change but a heart and a friend can be forever. A good read.