The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Weaving a novel from a thread of history Posted: 09 Jun 2011 09:45 PM PDT NEW YORK, June 10 — Little is known of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, a member of the Wampanoag tribe on Martha's Vineyard believed to be the first Native American to graduate from Harvard in 1665. Only a letter, written in Latin to a benefactor, remains. From this thread of history, Geraldine Brooks has woven "Caleb's Crossing". Narrated by the fictional Bethia Mayfield, a minister's daughter who secretly befriends Caleb, the novel traces their friendship from exploring the lush wilds of Martha's Vineyard to confronting discrimination at Harvard. Brooks, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal who in 2006 won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her novel "March", spoke with Reuters about her new book and her approach to historical fiction. Q: How did you come to write about this subject? A: "In 2006, I went to Martha's Vineyard to live, and I was avid to know about the Wampanoag tribe that's inhabited the island for thousands of years, so I gathered up some materials that the tribe had brought together. Among them was a map that showed sights of significance to the Wampanoag. On it was a notation mentioning it was the birthplace of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. I leapt to the assumption that this probably happened in 1965 during the Civil Rights movement. I was astonished when I read the date and saw that it was 1665. That just sparked a tremendous curiosity to know how it had happened that a youth raised in his own language and culture had wound up sitting down to study in Latin with the sons of the Puritan Colonial elite." Q: How much do you research before you're ready to write a book? A: "I don't do a tremendous amount of research initially. I get the super-structure. I follow the line of fact to find out what is actually known. Then I rely on finding a voice to tell the story. So I read as much as I can of first-person accounts of the time, a lot of writings by the English settlers who'd come to live on Martha's Vineyard in 1641 and a lot of the correspondence from various officials at Harvard regarding Caleb, and the one letter that we have from his own hand, which is written in Latin. I immerse myself in the documentary record until a voice from that time starts speaking to me. When I can hear that narrator, then I can start writing. "Then I get to a point where I don't know something. My narrator first sees Caleb. What's he wearing? So then I have to research what he would've been wearing if he was hunting for waterfowl. I do it piecemeal; I let the story tell me what I need to know as I go along." Q: You use some Wampanoag words. Does the language survive? A: "It's a miraculous story. This language was not spoken for six generations. About a decade ago a member of the tribe had dreams in which she thought her ancestors were speaking with her in Wampanoag, and she went off and got a master's degree in linguistics at MIT and has been working on reviving the language. There are now dozens of Wampanoag speakers in the tribe, and the linguist's daughter is now the first native speaker in generations, having been raised in the language." Q: How did you make the transition from reporter to fiction writer? A: "I've always said that I have to credit the Nigerian secret police for that, because they arrested me when I was reporting about Shell Oil being in cahoots with the Abacha military dictatorship to suppress protests by the Ogoni people. As you do as a journalist, I went to the military to get their side of the story and that didn't go very well. They threw me in jail, and I didn't know how long they were going to keep me. I was 38 years old, and I thought if they keep me for a couple of years I would have totally blown up the chance of having a family. So when I got deported after only three days, I went home with a new view of things, and our son was born the following year. And at that point, I didn't want to go off on long open-ended assignments that you need to do. So I needed a new gig." — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Controversial ‘Three Cups’ author has heart surgery Posted: 09 Jun 2011 08:11 PM PDT  Greg Mortenson with Sitara "Star" schoolchildren in Wakhan, north-eastern Afghanistan, in this undated handout photograph released to Reuters March 11, 2009. — Reuters pic Mortenson, 53, underwent the surgery last week to repair a very large hole in his heart, or an atrial septal defect, said Anne Beyersdorfer, the acting executive director of Mortenson's Montana-based charity, the Central Asia Institute. The operation also repaired an aneurysm, which is a bulge in a blood vessel. The author has suffered from hypoxia — a condition marked by a lack of oxygen — for the past year, Beyersdorfer said. Mortenson's book chronicles his unsuccessful attempt to climb the mountain K2 in South Asia and his encounter with impoverished Pakistani villagers who he said inspired him to build schools and other projects in the region. In April, the CBS news programme "60 Minutes" challenged the credibility of biographical details in "Three Cups of Tea", and said Mortenson's institute was largely used to promote the 2006 book. The institute was founded to build schools for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Among other things, the "60 Minutes" piece disputed Mortenson's account of being kidnapped in Pakistan's Waziristan region in 1996. Last month, Mortenson was sued for fraud in a class-action case accusing him of fabricating much of his story in "Three Cups of Tea", although the lawsuit did not give examples of purported fabrications. The two named plaintiffs are Jean Price of Great Falls, Montana, and Michele Reinhart of Missoula. Separately, in April, Montana Attorney-General Steve Bullock said he had opened an inquiry into Mortenson's Central Asia Institute to ensure its charitable assets were used for the right purposes. The inquiry was still open, said Judy Beck, a spokeswoman for Bullock. Mortenson's representative Beyersdorfer said: "We are very fortunate he was able to get comprehensive care he needed to repair his heart, so he can be in good health to get back to work and address media misinformation." The operation on Mortenson's heart was conducted at an undisclosed facility outside of Montana. He would be in recovery for weeks and planned to return to work afterwards, Beyersdorfer said. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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