Meet some familiar figures: Anne Hutchison and Anne Bradstreet

Geraldine Brooks' new novel, Caleb's Crossing, follows her previous work in taking a small historical fact as the inspiration for a work of imagination.  Like March, this book is set in North America, but in the 17th rather than the 19th century.  Despite its title the tale is told by Bethia Mayfield instead of by her friend Caleb.  The two--the daughter of a Puritan minister and the son of a Wampanoag leader--become friends as pre-teens and remain so through Caleb's tragically short life.  Brooks spins Caleb's story from the small stuff that a student by that name and origin graduated from Harvard in the 1660s. 

Bethia is entirely of her making though drawing upon historical figures including Anne Hutchinson and Anne Bradstreet who both appear in the novel.  Bethia knows, admires, and has memorized Bradsteet's poetry; indeed Bradstreet's example encourages Bethia in her desire to learn.  Bethia's grandfather quit Mass. Bay for Great Harbor (Martha's Vineyard) following Hutchinson's trial and expulsion.  Having heard that story from him, when she lives in Cambridge, Bethia contrives to read the transcript of the trial and later quotes Hutchinson to her advantage when making a case for that desire to learn.  Indeed that exchange with her father-in-law to be reveals Bethia's clear understanding of Hutchinson's position, its differences from her own views, and the practical lesson she takes from Hutchinson's fate.  (Am Con students who have written about Hutchinson will find the page or so particularly vivid.)

I found this book most like Year of Wonders in its clear focus and intimacy.  Both central stories in Caleb's Crossing are compelling: Caleb's strategic crossing from the island to the mainland, from his native culture and religion into the colonists' and Bethia's own geographic crossings and cultural struggles.  Brooks weaves these into familiar information about the colonial era.  The appearance of the two Anne's was not only a delightful surprise, but gave me a new sense of how they might have been regarded by their contemporaries.