I don't think I have ever in my life seen a trailer for a book!
Caleb's Crossing
Geraldine Brooks
ISBN-10: 9780143121077
I absolutely loved this book! I have found personally I am drawn to historical fiction and this piece was a work of art. It is loosely based on the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck the first Native American Indian graduate of Harvard college. Geraldine imagined a story and wrapped it around his name. Aside from the sheer history of the Indian's of Martha's Vineyard there was another layer of interest reguarding English women in the early 1600's, a layer I loved almost as much as Caleb's story. It spoke much to education and the changing of ways. Some which seemed right and others not so much. For instance the instance on the ways of the times that said that women's minds were not made for "higher learning". Amazing such a thought ever existed in comparison to our day and age. The title of the book denoted Caleb's crossing from his Native American way of life to nearly fully enveloping the English way of life leaving his Native American history behind. It is a sad starting point to a time in history which virtually wiped out Native American's from their own land. According to Wikipedia it was 100 years ago that the last native speaker of Caleb's language died and even their language gone forever. I deeply loved this book. I did what I rarely do with a book, my eyes whetted up in the end, and I also went to Wikipedia searching for bit more information about this story rooted in a shadow of the truth.
"Every happiness is a bright ray between every gaiety bracketed by grief. There is no birth that does not recall death, no victory but brings to mind defeat."pg 385
"I had begun this journey following him into the hidden corners of his world and here it ended with him crossed over into the brightest heights of mine." pg.385
