The Heretic's Daughter
by Kathleen Kent
When I heard about this book, I was immediately intrigued. I hail from Danvers, Massachusetts which is the original Old Salem Village. I grew up in the area and my mother dragged me around to the Salem Witch Museums and all the shops with their precious polished stones and weird stories of witches and mayhem caused in the 1600's. Of course at the time I had no idea what any of it really meant. It was just the prejudice of the time. Prejudice makes its sickening way into all walks of life somehow, someway. People like to jump on bandwagons as long as the bandwagon directs attention elsewhere. It's better to point fingers than to be pointed at. Martha Carrier begged to differ who is the Mother of our heroine. Perhaps she is the actual heroine of the story though it's not told from her viewpoint. One brave soul in a village of scared townsfolk.
Okay but then I read the back of the book and saw the author lives in Texas. Come on. How can someone from Texas write a story about our heritage? Our ancestors, our history? Well as it turns out, Martha Carrier was actually her ancestor and though she doesn't have the benefit of living where it all took place, she did grow up hearing the stories passed down through generations. That made it okay to read this New England historical based novel by a Texan woman. And I'm glad I gave this small allowance to Kathleen Kent because it is a beautifully written fact based novel. The story is made up...the level of detail makes you feel like it's all truth though and was journaled by Martha Carrier's daughter. This book is allowed a full New Englander approval though because it brought forth those feelings I get whenever I hear the stories of the Witch hunt. Anger at the politicians of the time, anger at the churches, anger at those young girls who took life for granted and didn't see what their crimes were doing to families...even to this day their cries echo through the generations. We all know the guilt of the girls who pointed fingers at others to save themselves. We know the bravery of those that hung so as to not shame themselves or their families by stating they had signed their name in the devil's book. Those girls that did the inital finger pointing and writhing on the ground...those are the girls that have their names in that there devil's book to this day.
Usually I find quotes to mention during my summation but this whole book is worth quoting. We should all live firsthand through this story to know the horrors of prejudice, of rumors, of lies and gossip. It is very sad...for we all know the ending. But we should know their stories as well.
The man who died defending his wife's honor..."more weight." I cringe to think that my English ancestors came over here and acted like this...but we are human...if they didn't screw up that way, they would have screwed up in another way...right? So read the story...it's emotional, though provoking...anger provoking...a great story for a book club. Or a blog...anywhere that you can then download the emotions somewhere else. Thank you, Kathleen for a newer version of the old tales.
A definite read.
The Critical Librarian.
