What Secret Asian Girl is Reading: Caleb's Crossing

While I may have put off reading Caleb's Crossing because I was intimidated by its Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Geraldine Brooks, the novel's fascinating story drew me back in and I'm really glad. It's about Caleb Cheeshahteamuck, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. What makes it unusual is the year: 1665. It's told from the perspective of a minister's daughter, Bethia, whose own quest for knowledge and desire to attend a school - any school, much less Harvard, will go unanswered. Not even progressive thinking at a soon-to-be major university will bypass the limitations imposed on her sex at this time in history. Acknowledging this, Bethia befriends Caleb and encourages him to explore her society's culture, religion and comparatively vast resources. She tells Caleb that by becoming educated, he can help his own people in ways that he can't imagine. He agrees, realizing that setting aside his Indian upbringing in favor of an uncertain future puts his own culture -and his personal safety - at risk. I found the story to be inspirational and uplifting, especially since Caleb Cheeshahteamuck was indeed a real person, a member of the Wampanoag tribe living on the American eastern seaboard in the 17th century, who did graduate from Harvard in 1665. The other characters, except for well-known scholars and leaders of the time, are fictional. Bethia's character adds a measure of irony as her aid and support for Caleb's (and other's) dream eclipsed her own dream of a formal education, which she was forced to gain by stealthy means: she took on the position of an indentured servant to help pay for her brother's schooling and continued to work there even after her brother realized that school was not his forté and left. By choosing a menial job in the Buttery, Bethia found she could listen to lectures through the walls of the next door classroom. She ends up every bit as educated and knowledgeable as the men in her life but sadly, is neither recognized nor compensated for it. As a woman, her options remain limited, but she is savvy enough to know that by supporting Caleb, and others like him, she improves the world for her children. This is one of the few books I've read that made me cry at the end, as much for the characters lives as for the conclusion of the story. I wondered, as I read the book, if the "Crossing," part of the title referred to Caleb's trip from the safety and innocence of his island to the intimidating world of foreign education and all the global implications of knowing what you didn't before or if it meant his returning to the roots from which he was born and accepting the part of you that will always be there - and to which you will always return - even when you know there are other possibilities.  I think the term "Crossing" does not necessarily imply going to a better place but perhaps to an inescapable realization of your true self. All the other stuff is fanfare and flourishes.  Wonderful read.