Caleb's Crossing

I loved the vivid writing and the sense of time and place. The island was a character in its own right, described in Bethia's memory like the best of old friends.

Unfortunately, the island was the most interesting character in the book. All of the human characters might as well have been cardboard. Each one was well drawn, but each one was a stock character - the rambling schoolmaster, the eager youth, the scowling killjoy, the noble savage - rather than an entire person.

The research behind the book was impeccable. I felt like Brooks had scoured every scrap of paper from 17th century New England, and had found little about Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, but much about everyday life. And then wrote a mis-titled book. Because it wasn't about Caleb's crossing. He was a peripheral character. It was about Bethia's crossing, and re-crossing, and growth into womanhood.

That it took me a year and a half to finish this book shows how unengaged I was in it and how much I found it a struggle. I'd finish a chapter a week and find no real reason to read onto the next one. The writing and the style was quite lovely but nothing that made me feel attached to anything. I feel for her plight in life. Caleb was a bit of a ghost moving through the novel, a shred of plot to hang the book on. I kept reading this book, hoping at some point I would get it and start liking it, but I never made it there.