From Publishers Weekly
In her first novel, poet Larsen (Stitching Porcelain) mines historical territory, reinterpreting the life of Mary Jemison, a white woman who was captured in 1758 by a Shawnee raiding party at her home in Gettysburg, Pa., while the rest of her family was murdered and scalped. In Larsen's retelling, 16-year-old Mary will not speak to her captors at first, trying to keep her mind blank of all thoughts other than escape, concentrating solely on her mother's last words to her: "do not forget your English." Mary is eventually adopted by another tribe, the Seneca. Learning their language and culture, marrying and bearing six children, Mary ultimately finds herself at home with them and no longer feels the compulsion to escape or return to white society at all. Larsen's lyricism and imagery are haunting, and her poet's sensibility is omnipresent, especially in her descriptions of the natural world. Yet the first-person reflections that Larsen intersperses throughout somehow don't quite live up to the sensational story. Mary's voice is likable but not fully developed, and not nearly as compelling as Larsen's more straightforward descriptions of Seneca life and the encounters between Native American and white society. After the real-life Jemison told her story to a physician and local historian, James Seaver, she reportedly said, "I did not tell them who wrote it down half of what it was." Larsen's tale soars with poetic language, but does not quite succeed in filling in the missing half.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Based on historical events, this well-wrought, carefully researched novel depicts the life of Mary Jemison, "the White Woman of the Genesee." Mary, a member of the Seneca tribe for more than 70 years, was born and raised among Irish pioneers in the Pennsylvania wilderness. In 1758, the settlement near Gettysburg where 16-year-old Mary lived with her family was attacked by Shawnee warriors and their French allies. Those who are not killed outright are taken captive. After a brutal forced march to Fort Duquesne (during which some of Mary's family are scalped), the girl is chosen for adoption by two young Seneca women. Although at first she begs for death, Mary adjusts to her new life with the help of her Seneca family's kindness and care, eventually marrying and becoming a major landowner. During a long life marked by both joy and tragedy, she has opportunities to leave but chooses not to rejoin white society. The author of Stitching Porcelain, a book of poems, Larsen tells Mary's story in elegant, poetic language that evokes time, place, and character with feeling and conviction and brings to life a historical period unfamiliar to many. For most fiction collections. Starr E. Smith, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
