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Caleb's Crossing

Geraldine Brooks

Start date: December 15, 2012

Finish date: December 15, 2012

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Discussion leader: Robert

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What Members Thought

Dec 15, 2012 Ruth rated it liked it

By rights this should have been called “Bethia’s Crossing.” Despite the blurb, it was not really about Caleb at all. I understand that he was a real person, and that very little is known about him. Certainly not enough to write a book about. So Brooks created Bethia on which to hang her novel of Caleb.

Right from the gitgo Bethia did not seem a believable character to me. A little too smart, too perfect, too independent, too learned, for one in her situation in her time and religion. I suppose t ...more

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Mar 02, 2017 Loretta rated it liked it

Shelves: settler-writing

Editing to add: here's a link to a thoughtful piece that does an excellent job articulating, far more thoroughly, the elements that made this book less than a great read for me: https://americanindiansinchildrenslit...

I'm kind of torn about my rating on this one. I loved the first third - the characters, the portrayal of the growing relationship between Bethia and Caleb, the powerful writing and description of the natural world, and then the emotion around the losses that accumulate. The middle Editing to add: here's a link to a thoughtful piece that does an excellent job articulating, far more thoroughly, the elements that made this book less than a great read for me: https://americanindiansinchildrenslit...

I'm kind of torn about my rating on this one. I loved the first third - the characters, the portrayal of the growing relationship between Bethia and Caleb, the powerful writing and description of the natural world, and then the emotion around the losses that accumulate. The middle third was a little less compelling, and then the last third was very meh - a lot of telling rather than showing, a need to bring what is essentially a family/relationship story over a generation to a tidy ending.

I think Brooks is trying to be balanced and fair in telling what is essentially a contact story, contact between settler and indigenous, and the first part was most compelling on that theme because it involves children who are both being true to their identities, their history, their culture. It starts to get more complicated to me because as Caleb transforms, taking on the settler religion and morals and culture, we are only seeing this transformation through Bethia's eyes. While we see hints of the costs to him, and his people, by the end of the book I felt Brooks had fallen into the traps that white folks/ colonizers often fall into when writing about the "other" - Caleb falls into the Noble Savage trope; Bethia actually becomes, in a way, his savior at the very end. That left me with a really uncomfortable feeling about the ending of the book that wasn't there at the beginning. The first third was "true" and genuine in a way the last third was not. So, overall only three stars, but still glad to have read it.

Note that after I wrote my review I went and looked at other reviews, and I see there was an epilogue to the book by Brooks that wasn't included in my audiobook edition. I want to go find that, as I have very little knowledge of the history behind this story. The fact that Caleb was a historical figure, about whom little was known, doesn't diminish my disappointment at the treatment given in the book to how the story ends. If anything, it accentuates it: if you're going to make up history, do that by making the characters shine out as real people. Caleb stopped being a real person about halfway through the book, for me. ...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Jane rated it really liked it

I just finished Caleb's Crossing last night. Read with a readiness to find Bethia's character lacked credibility, but I didn't feel that way at all. "Too good to be true"? Definitely not. She is wracked by shame for her curiosity, for her "cruelty" to her brother. As 21st century readers, we find her curiosity and sensuality, her openness to new ideas and to Caleb refreshing, but not believable in a young girl from her century. What about Anne Bradstreet? The rebels, the Calebs who exist outside I just finished Caleb's Crossing last night. Read with a readiness to find Bethia's character lacked credibility, but I didn't feel that way at all. "Too good to be true"? Definitely not. She is wracked by shame for her curiosity, for her "cruelty" to her brother. As 21st century readers, we find her curiosity and sensuality, her openness to new ideas and to Caleb refreshing, but not believable in a young girl from her century. What about Anne Bradstreet? The rebels, the Calebs who exist outside the norms, make the most interesting characters in fiction. I loved the language; it felt consistent throughout. I grew up in a family where Latin was valued. My father was raised as the only son in a family of Catholic priests and nuns. He may have been the only child in a family of six. He was doted on, taught to read when he was four and moved up to second, then fourth grade, when he was six. Of course, he learned Latin. And in college he learned Greek. He would complete with a good friend to see who could write the best history notes in Greek. None of that seemed strange to me at all, although my own four years of Latin left me baffled. The only Latin activity I loved was translating Latin poetry into English. I could never remember which word went where when I translated Latin to English.

I do think that the romantic quality of the first section left me wanting Caleb and Bethia to be together. That's intentional. The love between them, as siblings or lovers, is so beautifully evoked. Caleb is Bethia's soulmate, no doubt about it. The prison of Harvard is palpable, and the fact that Bethia is near doesn't help much. I felt as though I were learning so much about both early acedemic and religious education in this country. I admire Brooks more with each book.

Recently I read some comments by Iris Murdoch who wanted something in her books for every reader. This may be what some have observed as Brooks' flaw. She writes a story. She gives the reader romantic hope. She writes so that the reader falls in love, or is pulling for characters. It isn't "distant," or "intellectual" writing in the same way that "The Sense of an Ending" is, but I find it equally satisfying and more satisfying than Murdoch. I am blown away by Brooks' sense of a culture and of history. If this isn't exactly true to history, I felt, every time I read another page, that it should be. She is utterly convincing.
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May 03, 2011 Robert rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this book. I really enjoyed the narrator, and I really enjoyed the history as Brooks presented it. The characters were very real for me, and fleshed out my personal perception of Puritan history in the very early days of the settlement in Massachusetts. I have a better sense of what Calvinism was and how it functioned in family life and on a personal level. The book left me wanting to read more of this history and more of the life of the early colonial settlement here. I've read ...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Tamela rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, books-read-in-2012

Difficult to start so don't give up too soon because, as always, Brooks is an incredible writer and writes about incredibly interesting topics. ...more

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