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Flight of the Sparrow: A Novel of Early America
NAL. Jul. 2014. 368p. ISBN 9780451466693. pap. $15; ebk. ISBN 9780698137530. F
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Brown's second novel (after Mr. Emerson's Wife) examines how the early English settlers made their way to the New World, built their communities, and related to the established Native American culture. The author retells the real-life story of Mary Rolandson (1637–1711), a resident of an outpost town in 1600s Massachusetts, who was taken in an Indian raid and eventually restored to English society. After her capture, Mary becomes a slave to a powerful female Indian leader and witnesses savage cruelty as well as kindness. She also enjoys a new freedom she never experienced in her old life. When she is finally returned to her minister husband, Mary is conflicted by the prejudice her community bears against the native peoples even as they are defeated by the English armies and forced into small, guarded encampments.
VERDICT Brown has written an engaging and enjoyable novel based on solid research. Students of history may be put off by the trappings of a romance in the story line but will value the authentic representation of early Colonial America and the more sympathetic portrait of Native Americans that is lacking in James Alexander Thom's similar Follow the River.
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