Search - The Crown of Columbus

This book was written by two of my favorite authors whose books I love and have read again and again. Because of that, I broke my rule and forced myself to read a book to the end when I really didn't like it. And I didn't like it...at all. It's been a very long time now, so I don't remember details...but I clearly remember how bored I was by it.

This is a helluva book. A complex plot with good love story; historically sound; bit of intrigue and danger; and all-around excellence in composition, style, wit and fun.

Set at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and Eleuthera, The Bahamas (site of Columbus's first landing), features Vivian, an associate professor at Dartmouth given an assignment to write an essay on Columbus in anticipation of the quincentenial year of Columbus landing in 1492. To complicate the situation we find that Vivian is not only Native American, but in her ninth month of pregnancy. The father is a full professor who is a noted poet and authority on Columbus.

We follow Vivian, for the most part, through her struggle on many fronts. It is narrated in a self-deprecating and humorous way, though dealing with quite serious subjects: womanhood, the Native American view of the so-called discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. A nice touch is first person chapters through the eyes of Vivian as well as chapters through the eyes of her sometime lover, Roger. I suspect the dual authorship helped create the authenticity of two quite unlike personalities.

Key to the story is Chris's journal which touches off the intrigue. Here are a couple lines from the journal: "Considering what great need we have of cattle and of beasts of burthen, both for food and to assist the settlers in this and all these islands, both for peopling the land and cultivating the soil, their Hghnesses might authorize a suitable number of caravels . . . their cattle, etc., might be sold at moderate prices . . . paid with slaves, taken from anomg the Caribees..."

I like this book a lot. It is a joy to read. I don't know Michael Dorris, but Louise Eldrich is an extremely talented and entertaining author with superb reads such as "Love Medicine". Here is an example of the text: "Still there was something. Goldilocks had been here, as surely as if she had left a bowl of half-eaten porridge. There was no unusual odor in the room, but ions had been disturbed."

A thoughtful mystery

If you like archaeology, this is a good read.

An unbelivable find of Columbus' diary has a the reader interested.