In the 1600s, in colonial Jamestown, near the end of “the starving time” winter, a teenage servant girl escaped the death and disease of the fort to take her chances in the wilderness. In The Vaster Wilds, Loren Groff tells a searing story of her attempt to travel to “the French” where she hopes to find refuge.
The girl was taken from a London poor house at four by a wealthy family to be its maidservant and pet. When she is a teenager, the minister husband decrees they will go to the new world to save souls. On the voyage, the girl is one of the few who does not become ill, or die, and enjoys a rare time of happiness.
Although we learn about her earlier life through flashbacks, the majority of the story is made up of her weeks in the wilderness. The book has been described as a modern Robinson Crusoe, a survivalist story, or a captivity tale. While she physically escapes her bondage to the minister and his wife, she is still captive to their views of herself: her mother was probably a whore who abandoned her; she is a “zed,” nothing to be noticed; there is no way she is one of the elect.
Yet, this illiterate, uneducated, starving girl finds food and shelter. But don’t think this is a story about bravery rewarded. There are no happy Pilgrims in hats having Thanksgiving with the Indians. It is a brutal tale describing the cold indifferent beauty of the world she has chosen and her struggle to survive. The author doesn’t mince words about the suffering endured.
The antidote to the terror is the girl’s growing awareness of her place in the natural world and her growing spirituality. “and the earth itself uncovered its shining face and to her now revealed itself in a litany of wonder… This place and these people didn’t need the English to bring God to them.” The descriptions of nature are lush and gorgeous. It is a powerful, but not pleasant, story.
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Hamlet said that a few hundred years ago, but it is a sentiment that hasn’t gone out of style. Elly Griffiths, in her latest whodunnit, The Frozen People, plays with the idea.
The detectives in the small cold case department have a secret weapon. One of their own, a brilliant physicist, has developed a method to take them back in time to observe the actual crime. Now, Ali, another one of the group, will attempt to “go through the gate” to 1850, much further back than before. A Parliament minister wishes her to exonerate his great-great-grandfather accused of killing three women. Ali arrives safely but when it is time to leave, the gate back to the present is closed.
At the same time, in a parallel story, her son who works for the same Parliament minister, is accused of killing him. Are the murders, almost 200 years apart, connected?
This is a clever story full of twists and very unexpected turns. Griffiths sets the scene, builds tension, develops likable characters, and – surprises us.
I’m starting to see recurring themes in Griffiths’ works. In her Ruth Galloway series, the detective, an archeologist, studies the past. That series, plus several of the author’s other books, include a bit of magic or mysticism. Now, uniting the two interests, this latest book is about time travel, magically returning to the past. It hints that there will be a sequel; I look forward to reading it.
The blackberry pickles were as good as we remembered. I first made them, eons ago, when we moved to the country and couldn’t stand to see all the wild blackberries going to waste. That attitude didn’t last longer than a year, but during that time I discovered In a Pickle or a Jam by Vicki Willder, first published in 1971.
It is full of the most unusual, intriguing recipes, and is still available, in paperback, on Amazon for $8.00, a great bargain. Willder lived in Hawaii and so presents recipes such as banana pineapple jam or mango chutney; the more typical cucumber pickles – or okra pickles – if you would like a change; papaya seed dressing (another favorite) or tangerine marmalade.
What was too much work when I was younger, working, and busy, was, in my present retirement, fun – especially since a friend, who still has acreage, volunteered to pick the blackberries. We have something good to eat plus a topic of conversation. Blackberry pickles?
The term “joyspan,” is a new word coined by Kerry Burnight, a professor of geriatrics, to refer to how much happiness we find in later life. I’m interested in the subject but have found that books on aging are often wordy platitudes, so I was pleased to read a succinct summary of Joyspan.
To thrive as we age, the author says, there are four nonnegotiable things we must do: grow, adapt, give, and connect. Good enough. I’m happy with this summary and not planning to read the book.
In keeping with the idea of continued growth, here is some new vocabulary:
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What, pray tell, is a goosander? Very fun
It’s a merganser. See – more new vocabulary!
A treat at a Boston Breakfast – all of it.