Caleb's Crossing

Berkelouw Review

Review Gillian, Berkelouw Mona Vale

I've been spending a lot of time in the past lately - not literally of course but in the past as conjured by two remarkable authors - David Mitchell and Geraldine Brooks. Between them they have transported me to Dejima in Japan in the late 18th century and to Martha's Vineyard in the second half of the 17th century.
In The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell describes the experiences of an eager and incorruptible clerk who travels to Japan in the employ of the Dutch East India Company.

In Caleb's Crossing Geraldine Brooks' story is told by the young Puritan, Bethia Mayfield. She describes the life of the settlers, and the native Americans they have both displaced and come to save for their vengeful Christian God.  Bethia befriends an Indian youth, who comes to be known as Caleb. They enjoy sharing their traditions and language in innocent but clandestine meetings. Their young minds easily straddle their different cultures and allow them to compare and contrast the way they live their lives.
For Jacob in Dejima, there is a great deal to learn - not just how to understand and relate to his Japanese hosts, but also how to understand his organisation in Japan. Corrupt and opportunistic subcultures have developed in the business  operating far from the prying eyes of head office. Jacob's promising start is compromised as he falls foul of both his wily colleagues and the Japanese Shogun with whom he trades unwisely.

Caleb's journey or crossing is accelerated when he is identified by Bethia's father as a particularly capable and intelligent individual. He singles out Caleb for personal tutoring and intends that Caleb should be the first Indian to enter Harvard University. Caleb is accompanied in his crossing to the mainland by Bethia who is indentured as housekeeper to the scholar who is to prepare Caleb for his final entrance exam. Her journey parallels Caleb's. Denied the privilege of more than a basic education, Bethia's hungry mind feasts on scraps of discourse drifting from the classroom and her thoughts are recorded on paper scavenged from the discards of the students in the course of her housekeeping duties.

Like Bethia, Jacob develops his understanding of Japanese language and culture covertly, foreigners being forbidden to speak or read in Japanese. He also harbours a secret attachment to Miss Aibigawa, a Japanese scholar who studies with his irascible friend Dr. Manius. It is in translating a document that describes her terrible fate that Jacob hones his skills in Japanese. His burgeoning cultural and diplomatic understanding allows him to engineer, along with his Japanese allies, an appropriate punishment for the atrocities he discovers.

There is much more to both these wonderful books. In his note On Historical Fiction, David Mitchell discusses the challenges of undertaking such a project. Both books are underpinned by a wealth of historical research. Although each are works of fiction they are tethered in a credible "somewhere" and "somewhen". Brooks and Mitchell have created works that take us on great imaginary journeys across both time and place.

In the News

It is an intriguing premise: set on Martha’s Vineyard in the late 17^th century, “Caleb’s Crossing” tells the story of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard.

Told through the eyes of Bethia Mayfield, the story follows her first encounter, and eventual entanglement, with the young son of the Wampanoag tribe, Caleb. The boy quickly finds himself caught between old ways and new, taking a place at Harvard, and studying Latin and Greek alongside the colonial elite, while awakening the wrath of the tribe’s infamous medicine man.

Bethia’s life also evolves throughout the novel, from one focused on domestic duties, to one that has attained a measure of freedom and wisdom, for a woman of her time.

There are few facts that survive in relation to the extraordinary life of the real Caleb – yet Brooks has managed to create an enlightening tale, brought to life from the page through Bethia’s confessional diary, an intricate weaving of historical research and mastery of language.

It is a little known history, which explores a vivid life, and the timeless, intimate spaces of the human heart.

A must-read for lovers of historical fiction.

Reviewed by Nicole Mansour