On Our Bookshelves: Bellewether

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NOVEL: Bellewether

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2018

REVIEW:

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I’m not sure whether it was the elementary curriculum itself or whether I just wasn’t paying close attention. But in my memory at least, the American history I was taught growing up was sorely lacking and quite sporadic. We started with Columbus: 1492, sailing the ocean blue, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Then there’d be a brief discussion of the various explorers (Cortez, Balboa, Henry Hudson, etc.) with some names and dates to memorize, and then next thing we knew, we were on to the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock in 1620, the first Thanksgiving feast (fictitious as it may have been) included. Fast forward another hundred fifty years or so and it was 1776, the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers, and such. And from there we spent what seemed an inordinately long time on the War of 1812, and then we were up to the Civil War, Lincoln, General Grant, and General Lee. Reconstruction was quickly glossed over, and we were suddenly in the 20th century: World War I, the Great Depression, World War II…and then we’d run out of time, and we had a summer break, only to start over again the next year.

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One of the many periods of history that didn’t get much attention was the French and Indian War, named by the British colonists after their opponents, and which certainly was not ever described as part of a global conflict, the Seven Years’ War.

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If your knowledge of the North American British colonies in 1759 is similarly lacking, you may find Bellewether a helpful corrective. It’s also a good story, split into two time periods. In the present day, we have Charley Van Hoek, a young woman hired to be a curator at the Wilde House Museum, in Long Island, attempting to learn more about the house’s former residents, while dealing with her own personal crises. The parallel story in the past is about Lydia Wilde, a young woman who lived there in 1759, and her relationship with French-Canadian lieutenant Jean-Philippe de Sabran, who has been sent to her family’s home by the authorities as a prisoner of war.

The older story is more compelling–housing an enemy combatant in your living quarters during wartime (with a family already divided by the ongoing conflict) is inherently more dramatic than dealing with a family estrangement from a generation ago and navigating disagreements between feuding non-profit board members. Still, both of the narratives held my interest, as did the analogous themes: political divisions, family discord, grief, disparities of wealth, racism, and, to lighten things up, romances. Added to this mix of current and past detail is the mystery of Lydia and Jean-Philippe’s ultimate fate, and a touch of the paranormal.

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It’s a slow-moving but ultimately satisfying story. Both the female protagonists are intelligent and kind, as is the ghost inhabiting the house. Bellewether is a pleasant and light bit of escapism, well-told, and at least to me, a bit of an educational piece as well.

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