I just finished this book and although it started out slowly, I thought, soon I couldn't put it down! This author is one of those writers of historical fiction who seems, to me, to have that divine gift that allows them to "be there." I think, 'She had to have been there to write this way!" She admits much it is from her imagination (and MUCH is from true historical records) but I have to think, "And how did it get into her imagination??" It's a mystery! I am doing my family tree and a portion of my ancestors lived in Northampton in its earliest times, when this book was written. So it is a blessing to be to know what it was like then! Actually most of my ancestors lived in New England here and there, and so it's really meaningful to me to read about it. I'm thinking of seeking out more historical fiction of that time. Fiction, because my eyes glaze over with pure fact!
Now, this book has a peculiar theme which is wound around insects. You get a clue from the title "Spider… in a Tree." At first, learn that Rev Jonathan Allen used to write his sermons sitting up in a tree with his long legs hanging down, and people called him that. But that's not the end of insects—and I have to say I didn't get used to that aspect of it. I think I see what she is trying to do. Insects really are a much more prominent part of our earthly lives than most people are conscious of, or like to discuss. And allegories can be created around how we see or how we treat insects. Still, I could have done without the insects! I don't like them—I appreciate their complexity, symmetry and beauty, but they creep me out. Sorry, God. Also, in the human realm, sweat, smells, dung, dirty laundry being beaten with a stick in boiling water, swimming in the Mill River at night with all the creepy river live and vegetation—as the book goes on, we are taken through not only their high minded soul-oriented experience, but also we are not allowed to forget the humid, smelly, funky mess within which we must endure our lives.
That said, I much appreciated her treatment of the issue of slavery, and of the position and experience of women, and the difficulty of being a preacher to a mass of disinterested humans, who fall asleep in church and who resist enlightenment to such an extent that he resorts, as so many did then, to the movement called The Great Awakening, in which people were, by rhetoric and terror, brought to the state of to falling to the floor, screaming for salvation, so vivid were the preacher's descriptions of the foulness of the soul and the punishment for that which awaits them in hell. Only this seemed to do the trick in leading them to a spiritual experience which felt like being in heaven itself! —while it lasted. (The thrill came when one opted for salvation and the soul is lifted high and joy is everywhere!) When I learned last year, of this movement, in which one of my preacher ancestors was involved, I was horrified to find out just what The Great Awakening was awakening people to! So I was glad to read this vivid description of it, and how Jonathan Edwards really believed that this method would help humanity live better lives. And go to heaven. Just what we spend so much time trying to soothe people out of, in therapy! It does not take up a large part of this book, but the description of the church service in which people were involved in this mass hysteria is… well… enlightening!
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