The Purchase

Dickinson Family Saga #1

by Linda Spalding

In 1798, Daniel Dickinson, a young Quaker father and widower, leaves his home in Pennsylvania to establish a new life. He sets out with two horses, a wagonful of belongings, his five children, a 15-year-old orphan wife, and a few land warrants for his future homestead. When Daniel suddenly trades a horse for a young slave, Onesimus, it sets in motion a struggle in his conscience that will taint his life forever, and sets in motion a chain of events that lead to two murders and the family's strange relationship with a runaway slave named Bett.

Stripped down and as hard-edged as the realities of pioneer life, Spalding's writing is nothing short of stunning, as it instantly envelops the reader in the world and time of the novel, and follows the lives of unforgettable characters. Inspired by stories of the author's own ancestors, The Purchase is a resonant, powerful and timeless novel.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Canada, Book Club, Historical, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 2012

About the author

Linda Spalding, Kansas-born Canadian fiction and nonfiction writer, often explores world cultures and the clash between contemporary life and traditional beliefs. Born in Topeka, she lived in Mexico and Hawaii before moving to Toronto, Ontario in 1982.

Spalding's work has been honoured numerous times. Her non-fiction work, The Follow, was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award and the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize and she has since received the Harbourfront Festival Prize for her contribution to the Canadian literary community.

Her novel, The Purchase, won the 2012 Governor General's Literary Award.

She has two daughters and is currently married to novelist Michael Ondaatje. Linda, her daughter Esta, and Michael are also on the editorial board of the Canadian literary magazine, Brick.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In "The Purchase", Daniel is a widowed father of five who finds himself an outcast from his Quaker community when he quickly remarries a young woman not of his faith. Daniel makes a new home for himself and his family member in Virginia. However, life is proved difficult for the family and in one fatal moment a choice made by Daniel causes all of his family and neighbors years of heartache and mistrust.


The book itself is very well written but I felt all the characters devoid of any emotion.

[Doreen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel appears on two 2012 award lists: the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. I’m not certain why. The reviews I’ve read tend to be overwhelmingly positive, but I soon tired of it and struggled to finish.

The book begins in Pennsylvania at the end of the eighteenth century. Daniel Dickinson and his young family are exiled from their Quaker community when, after his wife’s death, he hastily marries a 15-year-old indentured servant girl. They end up in south Virginia but Daniel is in no way prepared to build a new life for his family in the wilderness. To add to his problems, he purchases a young slave boy despite his abolitionist beliefs. This event is a catalyst for a long series of tragic events in the lives of family members and neighbours over multiple generations. The long-term effects of that purchase on Daniel’s children are detailed.

A major theme is that of freedom, specifically whether anyone really has freedom. The black slaves are the obvious examples of people lacking freedom, but almost everyone is enslaved somehow because of religious beliefs or prevailing societal expectations. For example, Daniel’s Quaker pacifism leaves him unable to defend himself and others against violent neighbours.

One of the problems I had with the book is the character of Daniel. The motivation of much of his behaviour is not sufficiently explained. Why, for example, does he quickly marry Ruth when he seems to have no reason to do so, especially since that decision results in his family being shunned and banished?
Though Daniel is an abolitionist and “his moral nature was unchanged,” at the auction he “felt his right arm go up as if pulled by a string” when a slave boy is being sold? Then, when his son is dying, he stops enroute to the doctor’s to reclaim a horse? Daniel’s treatment of Ruth seems unChristian as is his unforgiving attitude to his children, especially considering how he was treated by his own father.

And Daniel is not the only problem character. Mary and Bett are supposedly the best of friends, yet she takes credit for Bett’s healing skills and doesn’t give her freedom? Mary knows she needs Bett to help her with ill patients, yet she still goes to home visits by herself when she could easily have made an excuse for bringing Bett with her? Jemima adopts a way of life that will serve only to alienate her from everyone, including her family?

I found the book a harrowing read. Daniel encounters failure after failure. He betrays his moral code, albeit inadvertently, and it seems that he is continuously punished for his sin and so is his family. I guess I have difficulty with the Biblical admonishment “The sins of the father shall be visited upon the sons.”

I will continue to scan reviews to see if anyone satisfactorily addresses my concerns and enlightens me to the merits of the book; thus far I remain unconvinced. I am not, however, motivated to re-read the book; in fact, it is a purchase I wish I had not made.

Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).

[MARGO · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear me, I really thought I would like this novel. The story line seemed so promising. A young Quaker man loses his wife in child birth and marries the young girl who he rescued from the Orphanage to help with the children. This does not bode well with the Elders and they exile him. He leaves Pennsylvania and takes his new wife and children to settle in Virginia. He purchases a young negro slave by accident and loses his favourite horse in the bargain. The story line is excellent and the characters are well developed but the story has too much description for me. Especially when Mary is telling stories to her brothers or teaching them lessons, her brothers were bored and so was I. The character of Daniel is very weak and sort of just lets things happen to him and really has no backbone. The character I liked the most was his young wife Ruth who is strong-willed and hard working. The book started off to be very interesting and then lost it's appeal for me towards the middle. In fact I was so bored that I could not finish the book, as I totally lost interest.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spalding has based her award winning novel on an ancestor, Daniel Livingston. The Pennsylvania Quaker whose wife died 21 days after childbirth chose to marry the 15-year old orphan who was her caretaker rather than return her to the orphan asylum. Ruth Boyd was a Methodist. This alliance was intolerable to the Quaker community and Daniel was shunned by everyone in it, including his own parents. He decided he had no choice but to move his family. He sold everything and acquired some land warrants to purchase land in the slave state of Virginia.

In the previous book I read, The Storm by Alexander Ostrovsky, there is a recurring phrase by an Old Lady. You will burn all of you in a fire unquenchable. This thought kept coming back to me after the Quaker and abolitionist made The Purchase of a slave. The Purchase was made in a moment of weakness - so weak it was done before he even realized it! He rationalized The Purchase as helping the slave because he would be kind to him and eventually free him and he needed help for his family, who were at that time without even shelter.

Spalding's writing style fit the novel well. Her characterizations seem to develop effortlessly, though some are more caricatures than characterizations. This book includes perhaps the most powerful death scene I have ever read. It consumes a total of three pages and was very difficult reading. It does not come at the end of the novel and is not the only powerful scene. This is a full, robust 5-star read.

[Esta Spalding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure - my mother wrote this book. But she's written many books and I've never gone online to talk about them. This books is different. It's a gripping tale. Masterfully told. An epic family saga whose characters will live on in your heart long after the book is over. I cannot say enough how swept away I was by the story here and how many of my friends - who did not expect to relate to this book - found it captivating and un-put-down-able.

[Elise Abram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether consciously aware of it or not, the point of view from which a story is told can make or break the story. The most popular points of view are first person—in which the reader sees the events unfold through the eyes of a single character, including their thoughts and feelings—and third person. There are typically three types of third person narrative. The first is limited, essentially another take on the first person narrative. In third person limited, the reader can only know, see and feel what the point of view character knows, sees and feels. In third person omniscient, the reader experiences the narrative from a variety of people’s points of view. In third person objective, the narrator tells the plot as if the reader were viewing a movie, taking in all of the characters’ expressions and actions, but with none of the characters’ thoughts and feelings expressed in the narrative, other than those responses which can reasonably be observed.

The Purchase by Linda Spalding is about Daniel Dickinson, a Quaker living at the turn of the nineteenth century, who is excommunicated after his wife dies and he marries Ruth, the fifteen year old Methodist orphan living with his family as a servant. Disillusioned with his former life and feeling as if he has no future, Daniel moves his five children across the country to settle in Virginia. At an auction to purchase farm equipment, Daniel inadvertently bids on a slave and is bullied into giving up his favourite horse as collateral for the purchase and taking the eight year old boy, Simus, home with him. Thus begins (if I may borrow a phrase) a series of unfortunate events for Daniel as his family grows and he tries to build first a house and then a mill on his land.

The story is told from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, following each character’s thoughts, feelings and actions as the scene unfolds. This allows the reader to glean information that the main character(s) may not have. The following passage demonstrates Spalding’s expert use of this narrative technique:

“If we take my children to Virginia, thee could travel as a wife.” It was possible, [Daniel] supposed now, looking back at her unwashed face, that she had never had a book of her own. “Thee may borrow my Aeneid,” he called back to her, “with due care to its binding.” He turned to smile, but she had lowered her head and did not see.

But I am reading it just now, Mary wanted to say. That book was the one thing she shared now with her father. It was theirs. She stayed silent.

If this were written from Daniel’s point of view, we would not know that Mary wants to say something to her father but chooses to remain silent. Spalding also uses this technique to hide from Mary that her husband was involved in Simus’ murder. The reader knows it was reluctantly so and that he tried to stop it and gave up and left before the actual murder took place, information Mary never finds out.

The Purchase is written in third person omniscient, but it is more a cross between this and third person objective, as many character thoughts and motivations are hidden. Ruth is the best example of this. Though she is present throughout and the reader knows she struggles with her position in the family, little is shown with respect to her emotions. Next to Daniel, the well-meaning but aloof patriarch, the most detailed, well-rounded character is Simus. Though he is around for perhaps only half of the novel, his life and death act as catalysts for most of what occurs in the plot. Mary, the eldest daughter, and Bett, a slave girl with whom Mary lives, befriends, and helps escape, aren’t as fleshed out as I would have liked. Though Mary gains local notoriety as a healer while secretly using Bett’s salves and potions, Bett only expresses fear at being caught, for it is against the law for blacks to medically treat whites. I would have liked to have known more about Bett’s feeling with respect to what happens in the story, as I felt the real story lay in the relationship between Simus, Bett, Bry (Bett’s son, the result of her being raped by her owner) and Mary, who form the closest thing to a family portrayed in the book.

Spalding’s choice to use this point of view allows her to expand her story, giving the reader snapshots into the lives of characters beyond Daniel and what he knows about his family’s goings-on. In this fashion, the author expertly layers the story, drawing the reader’s curiosity, rendering The Purchase a page-turner; the pace is quick, the chapters are short and the narration is easy to follow. The novel explores the themes of perseverance in the face of adversity, alienation, religious faith, and the make-up of family. Spalding draws thought-provoking parallels between the slavery of blacks and the servitude of women. Daniel remains cold to Ruth throughout. They do not have relations until they are several years into their marriage. Even then, he is aloof with her and quick to lay judgement. In many ways, He treats Ruth as more of a slave than either Simus, Bett or Bry, figuratively lashing out at her when she disobeys him or tries to assume ownership of the new homestead, he does not forge a relationship with her and goes to her only when he wants to have relations. This parallels Bett’s plight. Her owner (the Fox family) literally lashes her when she disobeys them, they forge no attachment with her and the owner uses his female slaves whenever he wants to have relations.

The Purchase intricately weaves the stories of the members of the extended Dickinson family into the harsh realities of pioneer life using a great deal of irony in the telling. The story itself is told darkly, but the end message is uplifting and emotionally and spiritually satisfying.

[Steven Langdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Purchase" has been awarded the 2012 Governor General's Prize for English-language Canadian fiction, meaning that three separate books have won the three major Canadian literary awards for 2012 ("419" by Will Ferguson won the Giller, and "Siege 13" by Tamas Dobozy won the Rogers Writers Trust prize.) The three books are quite different -- "419" is quite a complex thriller, with a set of separate characters following distinct plot lines that finally interconnect at the book's conclusion -- "Siege 13" is a probing collection of short stories tied to the Budapest siege of 1944-45 -- and "The Purchase" is a straightforward and intense story of the fateful consequences of an anti-slave settler almost inadvertently buying a slave in the early 1800's backwoods of western Virginia.

One strength of this book is the depth with which it presents its main characters -- Daniel, the agonized father sent into exile by his Quaker brethren, who drives himself hard and his family harder -- his very young new wife, Ruth, who marries him when his first wife dies, then grapples with life and grows over the years -- Simus, the young slave boy whom Daniel buys, who sets in motion a set of emotional ties with Bett and Mary that unwind into tragedy -- Bett, another victim of slavery, mother of Bry, who transcends her condition via love and learning over long years -- and Mary, disenchanted daughter, distressed friend and lover, then caring nurse to the baby that may redeem them all.

Another strength is the authenticity with which early 1800's pioneer life is presented. Daniel's family comes to an unsettled part of Virginia and the book traces with impressive detail the painstaking expansion of local livelihood that gradually emerges, with its zealous religious fundamentalism, its mix of various ethnic origins, its early interconnectedness and feuds and the crude basics of its first economic development steps. Spalding shows convincingly how such early settlers, battling their environment, could become caught up in the idea of warfare, as she recounts the years of the war of 1812, with its groups of black ex-slaves in Canada fighting on the British side.

The greatest strength of the book, though, is the powerful plot of betrayal, conflict, caring and redemption that plays out through the purchase of Simus and the subsequent spread of more and more slavery as Virginia shifts to cotton production. Rooted in the truth, it seems, of the early years of Spalding's family, this dramatic story is told with clarity and careful emotion -- marked by excellent writing and by a sensitivity to human complexity and religious feeling.

The result is an superlative book, presented well, and searing in its plea for racial equality.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my biased view, Linda Spalding had an exciting plot to work with: Quaker settlers head to Virginia to set up house and farm and have to reconcile their beliefs with slavery, greed and "American" individualism. All the trappings of a terrific plot: cold winters, butter churns, trading pigs with neighbours and miserable wives. And gosh darn'it but those settlers make the most of their tired (but well loved by me) plot line: they struggle, they suffer loses, they compromise, they prosper. Oh sure, the compromises are meant to be fraught and compelling: how does the Quaker father make sense of his sons enlisting? or buying slaves? or his daughter engaging in sex out of wedlock?

But because We Don't Care At All About the Characters it's hard to care about these apparent moral/plot crises. We're meant - I think - to be horrified that Mary continues to enslave Bett when she's bound, by faith and promise, to free her. But I don't know anything about Mary - what does she like? why does she fall in love with Wiley? what makes her happy? sad? - and so her decision is just as believable to me as if she had carried Bett to freedom herself (which, by the way, she ends up doing - with no apparent change in character to make sense of this radical shift). Instead the novel makes heavy handed declarations like "this (moment) (bird on the window) (breakfast of porridge) changed everything for Mary" and then suddenly she's off doing something entirely different. I can't even say something "out of character" because I don't know anything about her character. And then! The father, Daniel, I only know to do the exact, predictable thing his character is set up to do. So if the characters aren't entirely opaque they are entirely wooden. Blerg.

I may be belabouring my argument now, but let me just say again that the potential of this plot - and there is potential! - is all but lost in the mire of terrible character development. Too bad.

[Liz Bugg · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is obvious from the first page of The Purchase that Linda Spalding is a talented writer, but although the novel has a strong beginning, by the end I felt rather disappointed. The storyline is interesting on many levels and I could see a movie based on the book doing well at the box office. For me, however, it was not quite enough to elicit more than three stars. My biggest desire was to get more deeply involved with the characters, but due to Spalding's choice of narrative style, I found this difficult. At one point in the story (around the time of the butter churn) Ruth did really come to life for me, and I began to look forward to her development as the plot continued. I feel she was by far the most interesting character in the novel. Unfortunately I was passed on to the lives of the other characters and only given brief glimpses of Ruth's ongoing existence. All in all, however, The Purchase is a worthwhile read, particularly if you are interested in history.

[Luanne Ollivier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linda Spalding's new novel The Purchase is a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction. Trust me, it's an absolute must read.

1798. Daniel Dickinson is a devout Quaker. But when his wife dies leaving him with five young children and he quickly marries Ruth, a fifteen year old orphan, he is cast out of the fellowship. With no home and no community, he then packs his family in a wagon and heads to Virginia to homestead. At an auction to buy needed farming tools, Daniel instead ends up with a young slave boy. As an abolitionist, this goes against everything he believes in. This purchase is the catalyst for a series of events that will change the lives of family, friends, enemies and more.

I literally hurtled through the first part of The Purchase. Spalding drew me into the lives of the Dickinson family. The characters are exceptionally well drawn. Daniel struggles with his ownership of Onesimus, his marriage to a girl he doesn't even know, his efforts to build a new life for his children in a wilderness that he is ill prepared for and trying to follow his beliefs. His oldest daughter Mary is stubborn, petulant, wilful but also kind and giving. But not to her stepmother. But it is quiet, silent Ruth that I was most drawn to. And to the slave Bett as well. There is a large cast of characters, each bringing a turn in the tale. And all elicit strong emotions and reactions. The interactions between the players sets up an almost tangible sense of foreboding.

I stopped after part one, which ends on a cataclysmic note, to gather my thoughts. Where could the story go from here? I started part two a few days later and didn't put the book down until I turned the last page. And then I sat and thought again.

Spalding's prose are rich, raw, powerful and oh, so evocative. She explores so much in The Purchase - freedom, faith, family, love, loss and more.

On reading the author's notes, I discovered that The Purchase is based on Spalding's own family history. She visited sites and settings that are used in the book. I think the personal connection added so much to the book.

Brilliant. One of my top reads for 2012. Can lit rocks!

[Robynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to love this book. It has many things that appeal to me (a Quaker historian): late eighteenth/early nineteenth century Quakers as the main characters in the story; a story about family, migration, and frontiers; the opportunity to engage critically with sacred cow of abolitionism and Quakers; and, a Canadian author. It was a Governor General's literary award winner. The premise of the story (a widower disowned for marrying his young servant and subsequently transplanting the family from the settled Brandywine Valley to the frontier of Virginia) held great promise. All of these things pointed to the possibility of a great historical novel about the Religious Society of Friends.

I spend so much time in the archival records of Quakers in this period that I was looking forward to characters who might flesh out a period story. Aside from what I consider to be misrepresentations of Quakerism, it was the characters in this book that fell flat. It's not just the Quaker family that is unlikeable. Daniel's "abolitionist" and pacifist tendencies are portrayed as spinelessness (he can't seem to stand up to anyone) or peevishness (when his children disobey his he rejects them); his children are often portrayed as less likeable than he. The Methodists are gossips and war hawks and the remaining white settlers are brutes. There is far more potential in the development of the slave characters, especially Bett, but even the possibility of the slave healer seems to be missed. Granted, the story makes a good case for the ways in which a single choice -- in this case the purchase of Onesimus -- can have enduring implications. This family experiences some horrible loss but, because the characters are never developed, the reader doesn't connect to them in a meaningful way.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, what does freedom really mean? This book seems to examine this question from a few different angles.

First, the obvious, slaves bought and sold. Slaves in any capacity, past or present, are the least "free" beings on earth. However, is there some recompense if the slave is actually as much a friend and colleague as they are an indentured servant? Do they have any capcacity for freedom in this instance?

Second, the bounds of religion and the limited, sometimes twisted beliefs thrust upon blind followers of the faith in question. Whether they've grown up in the faith or adopt it along the way, these strict followers seem to be unable to change away from the "rules of the religious road" and think for themselves. Are they free? Truly free?

Last, the bounds of marriage and relationships, perhaps society in general. Are we free as participants in society?

I have never for a second understood how rational people could force others into slavery. I liked how Ms. Spalding handled the slavery aspect of the book and I was reminded of The Book of Negroes a bit in the strength of Bett. However, the religion aspect was a different matter. I was very intrigued by Daniel's character. He seemed to be very conflicted, yet dedicated to his beliefs, if only because he felt he had not other choice. That does not seem to be very free to me. Societal freedoms, well, that's one for the philosopher's, pundits and politicians among us to debate ad nauseum!

All in all, I really enjoyed the book and am glad that it has been short-listed for the GGs. Thank you Goodreads for the freebie (my first!). It was a really good book!!!

[reading is my hustle]

The year is 1799.
The place is Virginia.
A slave state.

Bleak story about the human capacity for cruelty. Linda Spalding uses biblical prose to tell the story of a Quaker family attempting to conform and succeed in a (non-Quaker) new environment. the unrelenting misfortune & mistreatment of slaves is ferocious.

[Veronica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know why I read this novel. I have never read about a more stupid man than the main character and his children and new wife are no better. I can't believe they survived by just plodding along in life hazardly bumping into new circumstances that usually result in death.

[Chris Hitchcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard the author interviewed a few times, and was fascinated by the storyline. Unfortunately, the book itself was a disappointment. I found the character of Daniel very difficult to grasp. The book is apparently historical fiction, taking some biographical details about an ancestor and weaving a story among the strands. The book makes a bit more sense to me if I think of it as a woman's story, with men who exist only to construct the oppression within which children, wives and Negros navigate their lives. I could make no sense of many of the choices, and some of the Quaker historical details are inaccurate (Quakers used guns to hunt). I would have liked an afterword in which the author described what facts she had to work with.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read The Purchase. It's one of "those" books that you cannot put down, are thinking about it when you aren't reading it and yu never want it to end. REally hoping that Linda Spalding gives us a sequel..I'd love for Mary and Bett's story to end up in Canada and read more about that part of our time in history.....but even if she doesn't, it tells a beautiful and heart-wrenching story...I won't re-tell it here....but I promise you that you will be dragged into the early 18th Century with the Dickinsons and it will feel like you are experinceing all their trials and tribulations first-hand. You will want to shake and hug characters by times. The purchase is everything that a wonderful, time-enduring book should be. Thank you Ms. Spalding!!!!!

[Nd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fictionalized account of the actual life of a Quaker shunned from Brandywine, Pennsylvania in around 1800, who then moves to the lawless, slavery dominated frontier of the western tip of Virginia (near the Cumblerand Gap). He is originally shunned for marrying a 15-year-old orphan, who had been a servant in his home, after his wife dies just after giving birth to their fifth child. (The Quakers had prohibitions against underage marriage as well as exploitation of servants. Most marriages of colonial era Quakers were between men and women in their mid-20s.) Later in Virginia, he breaks even more Quaker principles, including prohibitions against slave ownership, and the story traces what happens to him and his family as a result.

The book is written in very spare, almost arid language, that evokes a particular Quaker style. It won the Governor General's literary prize in Canada. Words describing or conveying emotion are not used much, and not at all by any of the characters (none of them says "I was angry," or "I am so happy", for example).

Despite their significant role in the founding of the U.S. through their religious colony in Pennsylvania as well as populating neighboring regions in colonial New Jersey and Delaware and the role that their value system played in the drafting and ratifying of the Constitution (the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia, and Del, Penn, and NJ were the first three colonies to ratify the Constitution), the Quakers seem to me to be a understudied aspect of U.S. history. They get overshadowed by the Southern slavery and the New England Puritanism. This book, together with some other books that have come out in the last few years, "Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson" by Jane Calvert and "Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia" by Karin Wulf do a great job of bringing this history to light.

The thing I suspect may be most challenging about this book is Daniel Dickinson's appallingly bad record at maintaining the Quaker principles. The author shows us why, but doesn't hit us over the head with it, and it may not be as obvious to some readers not familiar with Quakers. The beginning and the end of the book refer to Daniel's father saying to him: "Thee must find a proper mother for thy orphans." The grandfather's reference to the children as "orphans", when their father, Daniel, is still living, reflects a dissociation about the responsibility any father has to meet the needs of his children? It is true that paternity was not provable, but calling the children your "orphans" seems a bit of a stretch and even to reflect a latent aggression. This is particularly inapposite to Quaker views of men having personal responsibility for their children. It appears to be a form of dissociation passed down from father to son, likely because of that absence of nurturing from the father, and it reflects a lack of emotional availability, which creates men who have a stated, often pompous, fealty to these principles but who have difficulty understanding their meaning or processing how to apply them in practical situations. Daniel's obliviousness to the reason the Quakers shunned him, i.e. why it is an exploitation to marry a teenage orphan servant, and his inability to consider or even identify other means for resolving some of the situations he gets into (including perhaps marrying an adult woman in the first place when he became widowed), reflect how this emotional unavailability deprives him.

It makes him a "bad dad" as well, placing all the pressure on Ruth Boyd to tend his children (the Quakers considered it the responsibility of both parents to meet the needs of children). Also, many Quaker women took economic responsibility for themselves; this was not always easy to do, given the laws of coverture and other prohibitions. In marrying a teenager, who in addition to her immaturity had not been raised with the Quaker psychological support required to do this, he left himself without an equal partner. Ruth eventually does make a good contribution to the family income, but nothing like what would be accomplished by a Betsy Ross-style Quaker.

It is likely he was this way his entire life, and his first wife, Rebecca Grube, may have been this way as well. The Quakers were believers in family planning and by the mid 1700s were managing family size such that the Grube-Dickinson action of risking her and their children's lives by having so many children seems anomalous and may have been another act where the Quakers values lacked meaning to them and tragedy resulted. Or they may even have been rebelling against the hypocrisy of their own Quaker parents (including statements like the one Daniel's father may have made to him, labeling his children "orphans").

The central message of the book seems to me to be that even a very humanistic type of religion like the Society of Friends is inadequate to support human development and ethical conduct and to protect human rights. The Friends regarded both men and women, and people of all races, to have the same fundamental rights and responsibilities, and their meeting style of worship (which had no preacher) was designed to allow individuals space for expression, contemplation, and individual action (in contrast to requiring conformity to one true means, such as the Catholic Church requires, or establishing privilege in one sex, again as the Catholic Church requires, or one race, as some other religions do). These values show up in the U.S. Constitution, including in its being drafted around rights of Person, not rights of Man, as other contemporaneous Enlightenment Era documents, such as the French Constitution did.

One of my favorite scenes in the book is Ruth Boyd's coming into her own at the funeral held late in the book. Her authentic personal speech is characteristic of one of the best qualities of the Quakers, which was how they allowed women space to be their own people, even if sometimes in this arid thinking, but not feeling, style. They did not believe in "original sin" or "Adam's Rib" and saw men and women as separate people, even in marriage (they saw marriage as being about being "help-meets for each other").

For this reason, many of the leading women of United States history, from Susan B. Anthony to Alice Paul, to Rosa Parks, right on through to Hillary Clinton (who seems to me likely to have some of this Quaker background as well, particularly in her vision of children's rights as being based on presumed competence of the child), came out of this Quaker background. The unfortunate irony and distortion is that they needed the Quaker religion to develop this, as the political economy remained almost entirely dominated by men for many years, and, even today, we have Supreme Court Justices such as Scalia who try to redefine the word "Person" (he says it means only heterosexual adult male, male fetus or corporation or association). Because the Quakers were a minority of the population, particularly after large influxes of immigrants with other belief systems, including not just other Protestant belief systems, but those of Catholicism, Judaism, Eastern religions, Islam, warrior cultures, slaveholding cultures, etc., they have always been somewhat of a minority, despite paradoxically being at the center of developing the Constitution. They have also been at odds with some legal systems in United States history, such as sanction of slavery and the laws of coverture (a marriage law that "the two shall be one and that one shall be the man"; the coverture laws have been repealed but we still have vestiges of the coverture system in place).

I am one of the other descendants of this man, along with the author, through the boy John Carter Dickinson, who is born to Daniel and Ruth Boyd, so I know a bit of the subsequent story if it is interesting to readers. John Carter Dickinson later moved to Kansas during Bleeding Kansas days; his grandson, William Boyd Dickinson, in about 1910 married a woman who became the first woman elected to a Board of Education in the state of Missouri. Her name was Alice Hillman and she was the daughter of a family with Quaker roots in colonial New Jersey, just across the Delaware River from Daniel Dickinson's colonial ancestors; her family did not have this troubled history that the Daniel Dickinson family did. One of their sons, this author Linda Spalding's father, Jacob Alan Dickinson, a desgregationist, was then elected in 1954 by the people of Topeka to be President of the Board of Education when they decided to integrate, peacably, their elementary schools of their own initiative while Brown v. Board of Education was pending.

Another nexus of this family with U.S. history is that Daniel Dickinson's grandparents, Joseph Dickinson and Elizabeth Miller, are also the 5g grandparents of Richard Nixon, who was actually raised as a Quaker in the 20th Century. Nixon's family history took a different path, including strains of Midwestern and Southern California evangelical Quakerism, including a fundamentalist group that took the Bible literally, and "programmed meetings" with preachers, in contrast to more science-interested "original" Quakers and their unprogrammed, "priesthood of all believers", original Quaker meeting style.

Not all Quakers may have been as emotionally impoverished and hypocritical in behavior as Daniel Dickinson or Richard Nixon, but certainly the religion seems not to have recognized or supported individual emotional experience in the way it needed to in order to make its values more readily accomplished in the practical world. Also, as the book illustrates, laws of slavery and of coverture that other cultures and populations imported to the United States made this even more challenging. And the fact paternity was not provable until 1970 may have presented a challenge to the Quaker's "truth-seeking" and emphasis on men and women having the same rights and responsibilities.

Nonetheless the Quaker belief system was innovative for its day, a huge advance on other Enlightenment Era philosophies. Knowing the Quakers and their values sheds a lot of light on why our Constitution says what it does, as well as in what needs to be done and "not put down the plow until you've finished the row" (as Alice Paul would say), in realizing in practical terms the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in the United States.

[Elinor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just a mixed bag for me. There was a strong beginning -- I found myself thinking oh, this will be a really good book -- followed by a roller coaster of big scenes and pointless ones, strong characters acting inconsistently, and a rapidly-accelerating trip through time that made me want to get off the train. The book grew darker as it went on -- it felt like the sun was sinking and the room was becoming gloomier with every page. And finally, an ending that left me with more questions than answers. There's no doubt that this author can write beautifully and some scenes were extraordinary, but overall the book was both confusing and bleak.

[Harry Maier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, so what didn't I get about this book? I opened it with great anticipation and was rewarded with a story that got off to a good start. I wanted to like this story, especially after hearing it discussed on CBC. But from a promising beginning its seems to devolve into a loosely knit series of episodes and it is not always easy to see how all of them hold together. The basic premise that however principled we may be, life is complicated and requires us to work through our ethics in often compromising social situations is a classic motif, of course. In the end I was far more interested in Daniel and his Quaker ideals than the other characters. I wanted to know more about the world he had to leave behind and how his principles there forced him into comprises he wouldn't have otherwise wanted to make. But as the plot unfolds, we leave that story somewhat jarringly behind and turn to a series of other episodes that revolve around Daniel's children and his second wife. The narrator moves back and forth between Daniel and the other characters as these episodes unfold. This was confusing to me, and made the plot overwrought and at times unbelievable. So, for example, at one point we are wrestling with how an abolitionist Quaker lives in a world where through a series of accidents he ends up owning a slave. Fair enough. But then later we have his daughter and a slave woman who practices traditional medicine up in the mountains helping out a dying mother and her starving family, with the dad, who has gone to get help, arriving at the end of the scene, to save the situation. What? What is this doing in this story? The end seems forced since not enough time has gone into developing and refining the narrative. This book feels like it wants to be an epic, but is too short to pull it off.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I recognize that this is a well written book, I simply did not find the story to be compelling. Spalding clearly has a strong command of language and she tells the story clearly and befittingly to the period she is exploring; the tone and atmosphere are well described and I don't think there is any sense questioning the talent that this writer possesses. She knows how to write well.

The thing is, I feel that I have read this story a dozen times already. Its conventional approach to exploring themes of freedom and religion, through a story of Quakers and slaves in turn of the century (1800's) Virginia, felt tired and predictable. How many times has a similar story to this one been offered up to the public, and how many times will it be told using these same characters and situations? I question the relevance of this novel.

If Spalding had experimented a bit with structure or style, maybe I would have enjoyed this book more. But it is a typical, beginning-middle-end, point A to point B, approach to storytelling, and it tells a story that we are all familiar with by now. There is nothing remarkable about this book. Nothing a-typical. Nothing exceptional. But it is good, nonetheless.

My other qualm with this book is that it won the GG in 2012, and there is zero Canadian content in this novel. That is two years in a row now that the winner of the GG has been almost completely devoid of a Canadian identity. And there were strong contenders for the GG in 2012, most notably "The Headmaster's Wager", which, I feel, when held up against this novel, dwarfs it in scope, execution, and significance. It kind of baffles me as to why this book took away the award this year.

3/5

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping to enjoy this prize winning novel. I found many of the main character’s actions left so completely unexplained as to make him look foolish or the story incomplete. Why the quick marriage to the young wife not of his faith? Why did his hand go up by itself when purchasing the slave with money he didn’t have? Why did he lie down on the ground and just stay there until dark? The questions go on and on. There were so many foolish things left unexplained in this book that I could not enjoy it. The main character being Quaker also filled the book full of foolish religious notions of the time (most of which continue today) and this took more away from my enjoyment of the novel. The plight of the slaves and their search for freedom was only one of many different directions the book took. Overall a big thumbs down.

[Penny Bedborough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this journey. I received this free through GoodReads giveaways. I hate to think that I may not have come acroos it without this site. Its funny how the things we need most always find us, thats how I feel about this book, I was meant to read this book.
This story was enlightening in many ways. I can say with all honesty that this will be a book that I will come back to over the years. There are so many lessons in this story it would be wrong to speak of only one. I recommend this book to anyone that is open to seeing life for what it is..... a lesson in progress. The best we can hope for is to hope we learn what we need to before it is too late.

[Canadian Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why there were conflicting reviews for this novel. A great storyline - 1800's Quaker family moving on without a mother and the struggles they encounter as abolitionists. There could have been much more character development - great potential to do so. Overall, I would rate it as a 3.5.

[Vincent Lam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can hear Linda's beautiful reading voice in every page of this poetic, powerful book. The command of the vernacular in the American South is truly fluid, convincing, and wonderful!

[Melissa Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I really enjoyed the book. The beginning had me wondering what would happen next (this feeling doesn't go away). As the book progressed I found myself getting mad. Getting mad at the characters in the book and feeling helpless for other characters. This book brought about a lot of different feelings but for the most part I was angry.

I was angry that our world was like that at one point in time. I was angry that people still treat people in the same manner from time to time. I was angry that people stood by and let it happen. But oh I was grateful. I was grateful for the ones that did something. The ones that were just as angry by the things I found revolting.

The writing was well done. The book itself as far as plot and story go does have the power to make you feel things or think about things in ways you didn't before.

[Esther · Rating 1 out of 5]

Normally I finish the books that I start. But not this one. I found it impossible. I thought from the storyline that it would be a great story, but that was not true. The way it was told was like looking at this family and what is happening, without having an idea why the people behaved the way they do. Like they don't have emotions or motivations for their actions. Therefore it is impossible for me to feel connected tot the story.

[Steven Buechler · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a bit of energy to read this book but getting through it was worth the effort. It is a great mix of conflict and grace, with a touch of a history lesson to boot.

Page 22:
The road was narrow, full of climbs and turns and so overladen with heavy wet trees that Daniel's wool coat was soon damp. He had thought of leaving Mulberry behind, for her right front let seemed to bother her a little more each day since the long wagon-pulling trip. He had no one to mention such worries to now. Unlike his daughter, he no longer had a friend to whom he could write, sine he had kept a girl in his house after the death of his wife and, worse, had quicly married her, and she a Methodist. Everyone had turned against him and if Daniel had need to converse now, he spoke to his mares in slow, thoughtful sentences. "I bring you only to speed our journey," he told Mulburry. "But I will make it easy for you, as will Miss Patch.: At midday, he stopped to eat his bread and speak his further concerns to Miss Patch, who, like his dear wife Rebecca, listened but never judged. This mare might glance at him or twitch an ear, as if aware of the self-interest in his debate, but unlike Mulberry, who had no real breeding, Miss Patch was a fine chestnut out of a famous sire and thoroughly compassionate. She had consoled Daniel on may occasions, and now she moved at a pace to kepp the man as well as the doleful Mulberry placid.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this book. Couldn't put it down from the first page forward. Seduced by the intriguing topic and the delicately poetic prose, I drank in the story in just a couple of hours. But although I was happily led to see a horse, a rock, a tree in poetic terms, I was not transported to the pioneering days of Virginia and I was strangely indifferent to most of the characters - most notably to the protagonist, Daniel, whose potentially riveting dilemma is handled rather clinically. With regard to style, the book deserves a 5-star rating. The quality writing is, hands down, the winning aspect here - the aspect which most makes this a worthwhile read. The minimalist approach to character development, however, falls short of developing an inner life for the personages who should matter. The result is an emotionally flat reading experience. Wouldn't be my first choice for an important literary award because it doesn't succeed on all levels. Nevertheless, very recommendable as a better-than-average read.

[Carrie Ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this story. I bought it in part b/c the author is familiar to me, b/c it had received an award and b/c the Quaker angle interested me. The story was so bleak, the sun never touched a single character's face. I had a hard time with the fact that many of the characters actions are never explained. Not the story for me.

[Hollis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yuck.
The writer clearly has talent, her word crafting is lovely, but the story was one painful slog. I would have given up if it wasn't our book club pick. I wanted to strangle every character, especially Daniel (what a tool).
Oh well, moving on..