Review-Caleb's Crossing, by the Pulitzer Prize winning, Geraldine Brooks

CALEB’S CROSSING
Geraldine Brooks
Viking/Penguin Group, (May 3, 2011)
9780670021048
Hardcover, $26.95/3$31.00CAN
320 pages







CALEB'S CROSSING, is the story of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, the son of a Wampanoag chieftain who became the first graduate of Harvard in 1665.  Geraldine Brooks has researched his story and has conceived a fictionalized drama through the diary like memoir of Bethia Mayfield, a woman of fiction, daughter of a Puritan preacher.  They live on Great Harbor Island, today’s Martha’s Vineyard. Their friendship begins through clandestine meetings that leads to a lifelong kinship. Caleb and Storm Eyes are names they give each other. They soon became bi-lingual and share not only language, but a sensitivity to each other’s culture.  Bethia learns that Caleb will soon come to live at her house and study under her father’s strict tutelage, along side her brother, Makepeace Mayfield. 

Caleb and Bethia thirst for knowledge, but as a woman, it is out of her purview and she is expected to fulfill other duties in the home.  This does not deter the recalcitrant and often headstrong Bethia, who manages a way to learn and defy conventional norms despite her fear of Satan.

Caleb and his Native American friend Joel cross over the water that separates Great Harbor from Cambridge, to pursue their destiny at Harvard. The metaphor of that journey across the water is bountiful and imaginative in the hands of Ms. Brooks. Caleb’s crossing is Caleb’s struggle to reconcile his own culture with the fate of his adopted religious beliefs.  Just as ships sail across uncertain and treacherous water the fate of Caleb’s crossing is a story with an unpredictable destiny.

Geraldine Brooks is an extraordinary illusionist with adept visual acuity. Reading her novel Caleb’s Crossing will satisfy the most discriminating literary lover with phrasing that begs to be read again.

“From my canoe I could see the muscles working in the arms of Momonequem as he paddled ahead with father. His oar pierced the water without a splash, sending ripples arrowing back to shore, where turtles catching afternoon sunlight slid from the banks as we approached.” (63)

 “This morning, light lapped the water as if God had split a goblet of molten gold upon a ground of darkest velvet.” (255)

Close your eyes as the images she sketches appear in alluring fade-in transitions.

Countless themes play counterpoint in her novel as the author examines tolerance via racial prejudice, religious and cultural belief and female roles.

CALEB'S CROSSING, is a tragically moving story, memorable and beguiling as the reader has come to expect from the sensitive writing of Geraldine Brooks. An afterword is provided to clarify facts from the writer’s imagination.  Most highly recommended and a favored 2011 pick.

Disclosure: ARC was sent to me at no cost.  The above review is my honest opinion of this novel.




© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2011].  July 5, 2011

The Eternal Ones, by Kirsten Miller

THE ETERNAL ONES
by Kirsten Miller
Razorbill, Penguin Group(August 10, 2010)
432 pages
ISBN 9781595143082
Ages 12 and up
$17.99/$22.50

Synopsis from the bookcover:

Haven Moore has always lived in a tiny town of Snope City, Tennessee. But for as long as she can remember, Haven has experienced visions of a past life as a girl named Constance, whose love for a boy called Ethan ended in fiery tragedy.
One day, the sight of notorious playboy Iain Morrow on television brings Haven to her knees. Haven flees to New York City to find Iain an there, she is swept up in an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous.

My thoughts:

The Eternal Ones arrived in my mailbox on Friday. I sometimes peruse through books I receive for review just to get a sense of the book. When I read the first few paragraphs, I became engrossed, planted in my chair for hours. The skeptic in me says there is no such thing as love at first sight. The woman in me says perhaps there truly is. With my daily schedule put on hold, I was held captive by this romantic suspense. Kirsten Miller creates the perfect mystery with surprise twists in this tantalizing story that keeps the reader engaged, crazy with curiosity. A menagerie of memorable characters offer just the right humor to move this story forward at breath-catching speed. With refreshing originality, this YA novel will no doubt slip quickly to the top of booklists everywhere. Lends well for sequel possibilities. Don’t miss it!

About the author from the bookjacket:

Kirsten Miller grew up in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina, At seventeen, she hit the road and moved to New York City, where she lives to this day. Kirsten is the author of the acclaimed Kiki Strike books, which tell the tale of the delinquent girl geniuses who keep Manhattan safe.

In a Nutshell:

My rating: Very good-excellent-(quick enjoyable suspenseful)
First time reading this author: Yes
Chances I would read more by this author: High

Disclosure: The copy of this book was sent to me by Penguin Young Readers Group. My review is my honest opinion without bias.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2010].

Book Review: The Last Day, by James Landis

The Last Day: A Novel
James Landis
Steerforth Press
978-1-58642-165-6
304p.

Warren Harlan Pease is a sniper specialist in the US Army, who on his first day home meets Jesus on a beach in New Hampshire. Warren calls the beach “a place of memories. When you come here, you take your life with you.” (3) Warren Pease, whose name alone is a metaphor for his struggle for religious understanding. Soldiers call Iraq the Mess, and as he spends hours conversing with Jesus he attempts to make “peace” with the the horrible carnage and decimation of human life he has witnessed. War forces him to question his understanding of God, and other peoples’ cultural and religious beliefs.

As a small boy, he learns one day his mother has committed suicide. On the same day he meets the person who become his best buddy, Ryan. His father is a busy veterinarian who has little time for Warren. In high school he meets Bethie Smith, who he finds out is the teacher’s daughter. When Mr. Smith is fired for teaching inappropriate material, Bethie and Warren become his home schooled students. Warren(War) loves Mr. Smith like a father. He introduces War to poetry and he falls in love Emily Dickinson. He also falls in love with Bethie.

Contradictions surround his life in the desert. Love and hate, life and death, goodness and evil, friend and enemy invade his thoughts and tests his faith realizing through Jesus it is more about believing in yourself. You never know the enemy, good and evil can be easily misread, suicide bombers change life in a flash, and people who love and hate one another can love God.

“The chaplains would have you pray, but thats because they were afraid for you being afraid for yourself. A good soldier walked with God. A frightened soldier asked God to walk with him.”(268)

Landis brings you up close to the war zone with his detailed knowledge of weaponry and operations. The story is on the edge drama with some predictability that works anyway. Prepare to weep copious tears of sweeping emotions from sadness to joy. Landis balances the melody of his themes with the harmony of Warren’s conflicts to create a glorious everlasting chanson of belief and wonder.