For some reason I read three books in a row on Salem, MA. Two were by Brunonia Barry, The Lace Reader and the map of true places (the title is in lower case). The first was given to me by a neighbor and I really enjoyed it. The second I purchased because I enjoyed The Lace Reader, but it seemed like a something written because the The Lace Reader was successful. The third of the Salem series, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe, was recommended by my local bookseller as something difficult to put down.
As time passes since I read it, I understand more about why I disliked it. The cover states “Spooky” –People and “Bedeviling” — New York Daily News. I found it to be neither, but I don’t even know what “bedeviling” means. I do know that it was simplistic and trite.
Names are important to this story. The names are also what prevented me from really getting into the story. The main character’s name is Connie Goodwin. Goodwin is my last name. Goodwin was also the last name of the first girl who was “possessed” starting the Salem witch hunts. Connie is a brilliant, Colonial history, doctoral candidate at Harvard who returns to her grandmother’s home in Marblehead, MA. As Connie learns of women named Deliverance, Mercy, Prudence, and Patience and mocks their names while forgetting that her name, Constance and her mother’s name, Grace are similar to those.
What bothered me most was that although she was a historian and researcher, she was so close minded that she continually overlooked the obvious. What I love about historical research is how if you sense the process; look at what is there; and listen to the messages you’re given the answers are there, although they often are very different from what your mind may tell you they should be. That is part of the mystery and the fun of research.
This is also true of family history and looking at family photographs. By getting beyond the mental hypothesizes, you’ll find answers that take you further than what the mind can perceive. The answers are there, but you have to trust, you have to sense, look, and listen to what is there.