Flight of the Sparrow: A Novel of Early America

A great, well researched historical fiction of the late 1600's in Puritanical Americas and the plight of the Native Americans. You become caught between the two worlds as Mary Rowlandson actually experienced.

I LOVED this book. It was brutal at first but it was very touching, very sad at times. I found myself rooting for Mary....to sneak behind her husbands back to be kind to others, to stay gone, to be free of her husband, to be happy and free.

An excellent read, and very well researched. Not only was it very well written, and enjoyable, I also learned a lot about the Puritans and the N. England Indians in the 1600's. I would highly recommend Flight of the Sparrow.

A not so surprising account of Puritan New England, well written, well researched, and providing depth and knowledge in rich story of fanatical religious beliefs which over powered fact during our nations early years.

Flight of the Sparrow was an interesting look at the colonists of New England and the clash between the and Native Americans already living there. The reader feels sorry for the plight of the main character, Mary, whose life is so restricted by the norms of society and the Puritan Church of the time. After awhile, however, this sympathy turns to frustration with her. We want more; we want her not to play it safe. The book ends rather abruptly and without the satisfaction of our heroine being with the man she loves. I read on, however, and the Author's notes made me feel unjustified in my frustration with Mary, when I learned that she in fact was a real person and that he Author carefully researched her life and those around her. Nicely written and detailed; just didn't love it.

A not so surprising account of Puritan New England, well written, well researched, and providing depth and knowledge in rich story of fanatical religious beliefs which over powered fact during our nations early years.

Flight of the Sparrow was an interesting look at the colonists of New England and the clash between the and Native Americans already living there. The reader feels sorry for the plight of the main character, Mary, whose life is so restricted by the norms of society and the Puritan Church of the time. After awhile, however, this sympathy turns to frustration with her. We want more; we want her not to play it safe. The book ends rather abruptly and without the satisfaction of our heroine being with the man she loves. I read on, however, and the Author's notes made me feel unjustified in my frustration with Mary, when I learned that she in fact was a real person and that he Author carefully researched her life and those around her. Nicely written and detailed; just didn't love it.

Historical fiction that took place in Massachusetts in the area that I lived in in the 1950s through 1980s. Amy Brown is a dedicated author who spend years in research and editing before her books are published.

Great read, not what I expected, Mary evolves and rises above her circumstance but finds trust, love and happiness once again. The constraints of women in early America along with the expected obedience surely reminds us of how far we have come.

This book was great, but not for the faint of heart in the beginning, but as it progresses, the story pulls you in. The imagery she writes it's amazing. I could see each character and their surroundings vividly.

This is an historical novel based upon a factual event, the destruction of an English settlement, the murders of its inhabitants by Indians, and the capture and slavery of the surviving settlers. The premise of the story (not supported, by the way, by the captured woman's later actual written account) is that the captured, enslaved woman actually feels more freedom with the Indians than she does within her English community, bound as it is by rigid rules of conduct. However, this premise, rooted more in political correctness, in my opinion, than by the captive's actual, traumatic experiences is never presented in any convincing manner. After all, the woman herself is wounded and her little girl, age 4-5, is fatally wounded, dying in her mother's arms after many days of suffering. The woman's two older children survive but are also captured and enslaved, with their mother not knowing their whereabouts. The woman witnesses the brutality of the Indian attack, with the building in which the settlers have taken refuge set on fire. Settlers are shot or beaten to death with war clubs as they flee the burning building. The attackers make no distinction among women, small children, or even infants; the woman sees the murders of family members, including young children. This is not a hostile settlement, not one from which Indians have been attacked, but a peaceful place build on land purchased from the Indians. This is not to say, however, that the Indians do not have provocation; English settlers have committed atrocities against them just as the Indians have committed atrocities against the settlers. There is plenty of bloodshed, cruelty, and barbarity on both sides. It is easy for historians to look back and realize that the Indians resented the fact that the settlers were encroaching on their wilderness hunting lands and that they had a wide variety of reasons for enmity. That is not to say, however, that a mother whose child has been murdered and who has witnessed the murders of family members would take the same unprejudiced point of view. In one incident related in the narrative, an Englishwoman who is 9 months pregnant and caring for a small child whom she must carry becomes so adamant about needing help she begins to annoy her captors (we are reminded that the Indians have a low tolerance for weakness). She is stripped in the freezing cold, the other captives are made to dance around her or be killed and then she is bashed in the head with a war club until she dies. Her small child cries, so the child is killed in the same way. The bodies are then thrown into a fire and the captives made to watch until the flames consume them. And yet, these are the same people that this woman wants to stay among instead of being ransomed back to her own community, even though the Indians and their captives are starving and dying of disease and hunger. This premise is completely lacking in authenticity.

I enjoyed this book. It wasn't my favorite book ever, but I enjoyed it very much. It was well written and the story was something I haven't read about before, and I LOVE historical fiction. It was interesting and opened my eyes to a new part of history I was unfamiliar with. A good read.

Based on historical accounts, this novel was an eye opener to the struggles of daily life in the early days of our United States. The story was well written and easily a page turner. I enjoyed reading although at times I cringed at the scenarios that the characters had to survive. I have recommend this story to any one who has a curiosity about history and the early days of our great nation.

The first half of the book was good, but the story started to unravel in the second half.

It was too far a stretch to believe that the main character, Mary Rowlandson, after witnessing her family and friends being butchered by Indians, would then willingly choose to stay with them and live as a slave for the rest of her days.

I had to force myself to finish the book. It was completely unrealistic & absurd.

A good story. The biggest problem with the book is that the writing is immature. Sentence structure is overly simple and repetitive. I found this annoying. There are also some unrealistic aspects such as the suggestion that Mary was completely transformed when she was only a captive for three months.

I bought this book online. If I'd seen the first sentence I would've known it was written in Present Tense, omniscient viewpoint, which I find difficult in the extreme to read, I wouldn't have bought it even though I was interested in the subject matter. Not only is it jarring to read in present tense, awkward, weird, the viewpoint never allowed me to really bond with the character of Mary. I got it that she had a jerk for a husband, and her life was hard, and she was brainwashed to believe the Puritan ideas, but then the author's idea of Indian life as something more natural and better than Colonial life got in the way. The Indians savagely murdered children, treated Mary badly, but along comes the hero who gives her a scrap of meat...and she's suddenly in love. There I was, fighting the irritating Present Tense viewpoint and thinking, where is Mary's rage, her grief, her rebellion, her character? I was so disappointed in this book. It's like reading a history book, not a novel. It might've been a spectacular read--there was plenty of good research detail in it--but after a while I just lost interest.

This early American tale was totally engrossing. I have not read many books from this period and the descriptions of their lives and what they believed was so interesting. The life of a Puritan woman, especially one married to a Puritan minister, was very hard. This book tells the story of Mary, married to Joseph Rowlandson, a strict Puritan minister. Mary tries her best to live by the strictures of her religion and to honor and obey her husband. But many times, she feels the rules go against Christian charity.

Mary and her three children are captured by Indians in a raid. Many in the settlement are killed outright in the attack. Joseph was not present because he had gone to plead for soldiers to protect them. She believes that he will return soon and she will be rescued. She is very frightened because of the stories she has been told of the Indians and their cruelty. She is not rescued and she finds many things she believed about the Indians are not true. Though she is separated from her children she finds an inner peace in her time with the Indians.

This story was so very interesting. The contrast between the so-called godless Indians and the righteous Puritans was extreme. Mary was irrevocably changed from her relatively short time with the natives and had a hard time fitting back into her old life. And, naturally, the ever-so-righteous Puritans did not believe she was not defiled. There is a sadness to this story because you see that once the white man comes, the Indian way of life is doomed. And this sad fact repeats itself as the white man moves across the country.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to glimpse a now past way of life. Get the book. You won't be sorry.

I borrowed this book from my local public library through the store.

This was a well written and very interesting novel about the ordeal of the historical Mary Rowlandson, who was captured by Native Americans and held captive for nearly 3 months before she was ransomed back to her husband.

Overall, I thought it was a fascinating story and subject matter, told in third person present tense, but my main complaint was that I found it hard to believe Mary would want to stay with the Native Americans after only being with them for 3 months. To be fair, her transformation didn't feel abrupt or rushed in the narrative of the book, but when I realized everything that had happened while she was with the Native Americans happened within 3 months, it didn't feel like enough time had passed for her to change so greatly, unless maybe she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome (and it didn't seem like that was the author's intention). Particularly because Mary admits that she only had one friend in the entire Native American camp, why would you want to stay in a community where you don't exactly have friends? I understand she ironically enjoyed freedoms as a slave to the Native Americans that she felt couldn't in Puritan society, but also important to psychological health is friendship, and a human connection, which she admitted herself she only found with one person. If you only have one friend in a whole community, wouldn't you feel more like an outcast? Why would you want to stay in such a place? I also understand that she learned to adapt to their culture to survive, and that allowed her to learn and grow as a person, but adapting to a place doesn't necessarily mean that's where you want to remain. Not after only 3 months, anyway.

Regardless, it was a good story and I was constantly wanting to know what would happen next. I myself have ancestors who were attacked and taken hostage by Native Americans, so it allowed me some insight into what they might have experienced.

If I really wanted to be picky, and I don't, I could find faults with the novel. And I certainly don't normally go analyzing everything I read. FLIGHT OF THE SPARROW, however, practically demands it. It is a wonderful piece of literature and I congratulate Ms Belding Brown and the publishers on a well-executed and fascinating story.
What is the purpose of a historical novel? In my opinion, non-fiction explores the dry "truths", the statistics, the dates, the consequences of people's actions. A historical novel explores the soul of individuals within that frame of events, and should create a mirror that reflects our behaviours, thoughts, and ideas today so that we may connect and relate, but not jar us from an authentically built world in the past.
This novel sucked me in and did what the best novels ought to do: it made me reflect, consider, think. When I was forced to come up for air, I did nothing but talk about it as I was still deep in the fictional world's embrace, deeply invested in what was happening with the characters (and could hardly wait to come back to it).
Mary's personal journey, as told here--as interpreted and explored here by the author--is absolutely and wholly relatable to me. Having lived in four different countries myself, I understand how much can be absorbed and processed in a short three months when completely immersed in a new culture. And it does feel like years have passed. The culture shock and Mary's relentless questioning of what she believed to once know is--even according to science--wholly plausible.
As for the "feministic tones", I shy away from labeling for the sake of convenience and category. Women have questioned their confining roles from the beginning of time and especially when faced with a culture that does things "differently". Here, the novel has simply called that theme "freedom"; both subtly and intentionally signalled with different objects: the sparrow, the cage, the confining clothing, the deerskin dress, the wilderness, the cultivated garden. That theme is consistent throughout the book.
Writing from Mary's point-of-view, the author has managed to give her protagonist an authentic and believable voice. It stays on point, it's well-researched in language, and well executed. In fact, the entire book sings of an incredible amount of hard work and careful consideration. When I come away from studying meaning, technique and style, however, what I celebrate most is the great story this book has to tell. And all the new stuff I learned!

I received a copy of this book as part of GoodReads FirstReads Program.

This book retells the captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson and goes beyond to frame that experience. It seems to have been based on a great deal of research from the reading guide included in the book. However, it also seems that the redeeming parts of her character and the parts of her that made me enjoying reading the story were entirely supposition if not entirely fictional. This left me disappointed after reading it through. Those who like their historical fiction on the accurate side will be disappointed.

However, the setting description and commitment to portray Native cultures with historicity and compassion was delightful to read. This redeems this book as historical fiction even if the main character is a bit beyond historical.

I very much enjoyed reading about this fantastical Mary and her Native captors. The plot device and title sparrow strikes just the right note for the way Mary is portrayed here. It at first made me want to read a copy of Mary's narrative, but after reading the author's comments in the reader's guide, I think I prefer Mary this way and will not. To me though a mark of good historical fiction is making the reader want to seek out that real history to learn more so in this the book is a great success.

AudioBook Review:
Stars: Overall: 4 Narration 4 Story 4

A fictional novelization of an actual character, Amy Belding Brown brings us the story of Mary Rowlandson, a pre-revolutionary war settler in the Massachusetts Puritan settlement of Lancaster. Not only were these settlers struggling to maintain life, but within a rather inflexible social structure: one that viewed the Native Americans as savages, and often reacted to them with hostility and encroachment. During the time of the story, the English troops are embroiled in repeated ongoing campaigns against the Natives, in what is known as King Phillip’s War, a three year series of ever-increasing violent clashes between the settlers, British and the Native Americans, led by Metacomet, a Wampanoag tribe member. Frustrated with the increasing encroachment by settlers, and the dismissive if not outright disregard of his people, hostilities increased with regular raids, attacks and fairly frequent hostage taking.

Mary and her three children were taken during one of these raids when her husband, a minister was away. Thus began her three months of captivity, including the loss of her sister, daughter and rigid adherence to the laws and rules of faith she has believed are the hallmarks of a good Puritan woman. Those facts are necessary background for readers coming to this story: a quick refresher-course in the basic outline that forms the structure around which the author has crafted this novel.

Told in third person present, the initial chapters of the story are slow: full of information and a need to adjust to the narration style of the story, while giving readers some sense of the community. Understand that life, death and conflict are all harsh, especially viewed from modern eyes, and Belding Brown does not hold back on description: life isn’t always pretty, and she does remind us of the human costs in this time, building imagery, tension and visual references that are often sanitized and cleaned up in history.

What we get from the story, as it picks up, is the progression of Mary: kindnesses showed her despite the captivity by James Printer, a Nipmuck that was educated at the Indian Charity school in Cambridge. His balance between the two worlds, and his awareness of the traditional ways gives Mary a sounding-board, to answer questions, to converse, and lastly to bring her to consider a haven with him: where the freedoms unfamiliar in her old life are available. Mary’s growing pains as she comes to admire the Native way of life and worship, that encompasses a far wider circle than her narrowed view of structured prayer, laws and rigid adherence to both presents her with possibilities that she never could, or would have dreamed possible. This is truly the story of her journey: informed by fact yet reimagined by the author.

Characters in this story are varied and distinct: Mary is solidly portrayed with the exception of a few changes after her release that were far too publicly dramatic, even after her ordeal. I don’t feel that her husband was ever anything more than a rigidly pontificating man, while Puritans were a very tightly strung bunch, the development of his character skewed more caricature than human. John Printer, as well as the other Native Americans were given solid development: their losses and concerns as well as life at the time was well-presented, and while one had to feel for Mary in al that would change for her in her return, sympathies are solidly in the corner of the natives who lost all but memories of a life lived by their own rules after the loss of the war.

Narration is provided by Heather Henderson, and she presents characters and the story clearly and cleanly: small adjustments to tone and pacing throughout the production present the character changes without distraction. Nuanced with the emotional underlayment of the text, never over-reaching or overemphasizing single points to the detriment of the story.

While not perfect, this story is a wonderful depiction of the growth of Mary as she learns to acknowledge and even honor those who are different and “savage”, and depicts with heart the dramatic losses sustained by the Native American population of the time, and future, as a result of the colonization.

I received an AudioBook copy of the title from the publisher via AudioBook Jukebox. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

On one horrible day, Mary Rowlandson, a Puritan woman, and others were surprised and savaged by Indians and then the survivors were taken captive. The horror and terror they went through would be forever etched on their minds – those who were to survive. Mary was given as a slave to a woman chief and learned very very quickly that the Indians abhorred any sign of weakness. She longed for her three children. One of her daughters died in her arms and was taken away. Hard to imagine how hard that must have been for her. Mary soon learned also that Indian ways were entirely different from Puritan ways. Where she had always been taught that Indian ways were savagery, she began to see them as a very proud people. Then she learned that she had more freedom as a slave than she had as a Puritan woman who could never speak her mind and was always and forever under the thumbs of men, like it or not that was their way of life!! When the time came that she was ransomed back to her people, she was not happy but could never express that feeling. She, as a woman and a Puritan, had no say in her life and that constriction was something she had a very difficult time getting used to again.

The tense of the writing was superb. Not the first person tense but the “present” tense – I loved it. It made it so easy for me to put myself in Mary’s shoes and accept the story as being in the “now!” I thought that was so neat and I loved it. In all of the reviews that I read, not one person mentioned this – it really surprised me. To me, that was a real selling feature.

The horrible “option” that Mary was given as a condition for the release of Sam from death was so cruel. True Mary had a husband but many women were married without any choice for love – what did that matter to the Puritan. Only obedience and servitude was possible for women in those days.

Another ...... the reason I have not used the word Native for Indian is that historically in those colonial days, Indians were known as Indians and not Natives. I’m glad that now is all changed. They deserve our respect not our loathing. It was so sad when Sam realized that the Indian way of life was coming to an end and he knew that there was nothing that could be done to save their way of life – at a time when Mary would have gladly traded her ways for theirs.

What a story! So So well worth reading – just wish the book would have been longer!!! Hated to see the end.

"Flight of the Sparrow" recounts the story of Mary Rowlandson, nee White. Mary was was born in Somersetshire, England. Her family left England around 1650 and settled in Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After another move to the frontier village of Lancaster, she met and married the puritan Reverand Joseph Rowlandson in 1656. During the time of King Philips war (sometimes called the first Indian War) there had been a dramatic increase in hostilities. On February 10, 1675 the town of Lancaster came under attack by several tribes. The loss of life was large, the settlement was burned and many women and children were taken as hostages. Mary Rowlandson was one of those women. She and her daughter Srah were both seriously wounded during the raid. Despite Mary's attempts to heal her daughter along the way, Sarah died from her injuries some days later. Mary survived her wounds and became the slave of one of the ruling women in the tribe. In May 1676 Anne was ransomed back to English for the tidy sum of 20 pounds.

Once I picked this book I could not stop reading it.

"Flight Of The Sparrow" begins with Mary's life slightly before her capture. It then recounts her captivity, her 'redemption' and her life after her captivity. Amy Belding Brown narrates Mary's struggles; both to survive and prosper during her captivity, as well as the pain and frustrations that she contends with after her return to English life.

Mary discovers that she experienced more freedom as a captive than she had even been able to achieve as a 'good wife' in her own, Puritan English, community. She appreciated the relative freedoms that women were allowed within the Indian communities. Mary was even allowed to become a bit of an entrepreneur; sewing clothes in exchange for food, shelter and other small comforts that made her captivity more easily managed. She also meets a "Praying Indian named James Printer. James becomes Mary's protector within the Indian community and, over time, Mary develops a deep, but forbidden, respect and love for this intriguing man.

When Mary is 'redeemed' by the English her husband does not come to meet her. He had raised the money for her redemption but shows no happiness when Mary returns to the family home. He treats her as if she is 'tainted'. Mary's confusion leads her to feel as though she has no place in English society any longer nor is she able to return to the Indians whose way of life is fast fading. Mary feels adrift, alone and lonely.

After I read the book I did a bit of research to see how well the story followed the actual events. I have to say that I have seldom read too many other historical fiction books that follow the reality as faithfully as this book does!

This is a riveting read, with seamlessly intertwined plotlines and characters that are beautifully portrayed and exceptionally well developed. The realities of everyday life in the colonial period are exceptionally well portrayed. The grinding routines; the daily tasks of hearth and home, garden and house keeping. You can 'feel' the pain of loss through starvation and ill health; you can relate to the constraints that were put upon the people by their strict faith, and the physical constraints that the women of the community, especially, experienced. They endured the actual constraints of their clothing as well as the societal constraints of being a good, puritan wife and, upstanding member of the community. The community left no room for any personality variations. It must have been a suffocating existence for many.

Amy Belding Brown knows this history and portrays it will all of its good and bad points. She does not flinch from the realities of the time

I was so pleased with this book that I ordered Ms. Belding Brown's first book, Mr. Emerson's Wife

This book was a fascinating read. The struggle of being caught between Puritan society and Native society without feeling like she fit in anywhere really caught my attention. I didn't give it five stars because Mary felt a little too modern in her revelations about equality and slavery. I would also have expected her to carry anger toward the Natives for killing some of her family instead of her taking their side so quickly after being a captive. The real Mary didn't like the Natives as much, which is understandable after her ordeal of them murdering her family members and making her a slave. It was obvious this was written with a modern sympathetic view toward the Native Americans (and understandably) but it didn't fit Mary's ordeal. It's not how I would expect someone in her shoes to feel about them after all the murders she witnessed and the way she starved. With that said, the story still sucked me in and I couldn't stop reading.

This captivating story is based on true narrative of Mary Rowlandson. Her family fled England in 1639, when she was two, “part of the Great Migration of Puritans to New England, seeking relief from the apostasy of King Charles.” Her family settled in Salem and later moved to Lancaster. She gets married to a minister at the age of twenty. She learns to submit her will to her husband and to accept his corrections. “He reminds her that a woman must be subject to her husband in all things.” She witnesses violence and terror of Indian attack and is taken captive. She observes their routines of straightforward way of life and power of woman over man, which seems frightening to her. “It undermines the order of creation – the order that God put into the world.” Her confused feelings are further complicated by her attraction to English-speaking native known as James Printer. He shows her a protective kindness and compassion, a side of a man she has not known existed. When Indians negotiate her price, she feels inflicted. She doesn’t want to return to the strict ways of Puritan life and she doesn’t want to be a slave to Indians, but she wants their freedom, which she has embraced. A day comes, when she has to make a choice.

The book is beautifully written with language appropriate for the time period, transporting readers to the period of colonial America.

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Daniele

Flight of the Sparrow is a mesmerizing retelling of real-life Puritan Mary Rowlandson’s capture and three month enslavement by Indians during King Philip’s War. Mary, the wife of the town’s minister and daughter of a wealthy landowner, watches in horror as her home burns and friends, family, and parishioners are slaughtered during an ambush one winter morning in 1676. She and her three children are kidnapped, the youngest child mortally wounded and the other two sent to a different Indian village than Mary. She now faces life as a servant to one of the village’s leaders, unsure of the fate of her children and husband, and if her husband, if still living, will be able to find and save her. She had been indoctrinated in the Puritan beliefs that God’s will determines all and that Indians are nothing more than savage heathens. It was a rigid, harsh, cold way of life where emotions were not expressed, everything was a sign of God’s will and/or punishment, and everyone passed judgment on each other. However, the longer she lives among the Indians, the more she appreciates their way of life, their freedom, moments of kindness, and freely shown affection to their children.

She spends the winter months with the Indians. It is a nomadic season for them, rife with starvation and illness, and as the number of dead rise, the natives…

“lament that the grandmothers and babes always die first, as if the spirits of war wish to strip the people of both their wisdom and their hope.” (p. 135-36)

When the time comes for Mary to be ransomed back to her people, she finds herself conflicted, questioning the “rightness” of her Puritan ideals and her ability to assimilate back into her English society. Indeed, she is faced with a gossiping community, a husband who believes her tainted, and a sense of being stifled (like a caged sparrow) and pining for what her life might have been.

Thus is Mary’s journey – a story of loss, sacrifice, love, freedom, and survival, her personal crisis of faith. I felt her grief at the death of her child, her hunger, her feelings of being abandoned by God, her growing love for James Printer, an English speaking Indian, her changing opinions about the life she has always accepted as truth, her contempt for her judgmental neighbors, and her wish for freedom.

I read a lot of historical fiction, but not much from the early America time period, and I found the Native American culture fascinating. I felt for the Indians, their…

“dying nation, their towns burned, their lands appropriated, their very bodies starved and crushed and sold. All in the name of God.” (p.322)

Brown’s writing is terse, easy to read, and her storytelling engrossing. The subject matter has obviously been well researched, and I came away from reading this wanting to know more about these real people, though I realize that all but the bare bones of the story is fictionalized.

Flight of the Sparrow is a thought provoking novel and stays with the reader long after the last page is read. To me, that is a sign of a quality book. I highly recommend this for fans of early America and Native Americans, historical fiction, and readers of Eliot Pattison.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

This is the best historical novel I've read in years! I seem to have always known about Mary White Rowlandson's early captive narrative following the raid on Lancaster, MA in 1675 and have visited Redemption Rock with my family. I also enjoyed Ms. Brown's book "Emerson's Wife," but loved this one even more! I shared it with my adult daughter and we had great fun sharing the Interview with the Author at the end and discussing the questions she was asked in terms of our own personal attitudes and reactions to the book. The author's understanding of Puritan life and thought and her descriptions of living among her Native American captors is admirable, as is her treatment and obvious respect for these two very different cultures and ways of life. Her characters are true to life and unforgettable! I'm still longing to have known the amazing James Printer who learned to straddle both cultures so well! I knew numerous characters like Increase Mather, John Eliot, the slave Sylvanus, & Daniel Gookin from previous 17th century studies so it was like meeting old friends and coming to understand them better! Thank you for this very special book, Amy Brown!

This book fascinates on several levels: the story itself is riveting; as are thoughts about freedom (in this case, white women and children were captured by Indians) and how society's norms also restrict freedom of thoughts and actions; along with good descriptions of lifestyles and living conditions in the seventeenth century. I appreciate that the author did not glorify either the English or the Indian "side" of history; in fact, she explained both viewpoints in sympathetic ways, and did not stack all the good or bad people on either side. Well written, an easy read; but it's hard to put the book down because it maintains interest throughout.

Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings

A historical fiction set in a time and place that I am not sure I have ever read - Mary is a wife of a pastor at a time when the man of the house is REALLY the man of the house. She has blindly followed the path until her world is turned upside down by native americans who are pillaging towns and taking hostage the women and children. She is taken into their home and her preconceived notions are shot to hell!

My absolute favorite parts of this book were the moments where Mary was second guessing everything she thought she knew both about her own "people" and the native people. Like many people she had never put herself "in their shoes" and in doing so found some perspective and saw the truths and falsehoods in the stories that the English settlers were sharing amongst themselves. As a religious studies major in college, I loved the sociology of religion or in this case in societal groups and how one group can judge another before even understanding one another. This book took me back to my college days and reminded me to keep my judgements in check.

Wow...this was a really great book. I loved all the characters, they were so well drawn, but I really fell in love with the author's writing style. It is beautiful without being over the top. It really draws you in to all the sights, smells, sounds, etc. of the characters' lives.

I found it to be inspiring and often heart-tugging. It really makes you think about the nature of human relationships and what's truly important for happiness.

I would give it 10 stars if I could!

SETTING
Flight of the Sparrow, set for release on July 1, goes back to the beginning of the Puritan settlement in Massachusetts, using historical fiction to portray the devastating consequences of the epic clash between the English and the Native American. The setting is King Phillip’s war, taking place in the mid 1670’s; its consequences are played out through one Puritan woman and one Nipmuc man.

MAIN CHARACTERS
Mary Rowlandson was the wife of a minister in the town of Lancaster. Brown’s main character is based upon a real-life woman whose experiences are documented in a book she co-wrote called The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed, Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. This religious memoir of her three months as an Indian captive was the first “best-seller” in English America (pg. 329).

James Printer, also known as Wowaus, came from Hassanamesit, a Praying Indian settlement founded by John Elliot who translated the Bible for the Indians to aid in their conversion to Christianity. The remains of Hassanemesit are located in my hometown of Grafton, Massachusetts.
James Printer helped to set the type for the first edition of Mary Rowlandson’s book. For a time after the war he resided in the sole remaining Praying Indian settlement, Natick, just one town over from my childhood home of Wellesley.

SUMMARY OF STORY
After the town of Lancaster is attacked and burned, Mary is taken captive along with her three children by the Nipmuc tribe (her husband Joseph was away at the time). In the course of the battle, her sister Elizabeth is wounded and then killed by fire, Mary herself is wounded, and her youngest daughter Sarah is also wounded mortally; she would die several days later as the captives are led away bound with rope. Mary carries Sarah as far as she can, struggling to ease her daughter’s pain, knowing there is nothing she could do to save her. Adding to her burden is her separation from her other daughter Marie and son Joss.

Living in sheer terror from moment to moment during that march, Mary experiences unexpected kindness from James Printer, who frees her from the rope around her neck. It would prove to be the first of several encounters for Mary with this mysterious, handsome and compassionate man.

COLLISION OF CULTURES
During the first half of Flight of the Sparrow, Brown describes Mary’s captivity, weaving in detailed, colorful and honest descriptions of Native American life. Presenting the beauty and nobility along with the cruelty, Brown brings us into the increasing turmoil of Mary’s mind and heart. Terrified of and angry with her captives one moment, she finds herself admiring their way of life in the next. She gradually accepts Indian ways, from the freestyle way of dress to time spent outdoors, finding solace in the beauty that had before eluded her. She experiences the growing pains of a personal horizon expanding, a heart growing, and the old orderly and rigid ways of her life slowly falling away. In her captivity she discovers a freedom of movement and thought denied to her as a Puritan woman. It is a freedom she will sorely miss when she returns to English society. She is frightened to discover that her rock-solid Christian faith, regimented by spoken prayers and long scripture passages, is failing her. In the end she tries to bargain with James Printer to stay with the tribe when her time to be ransomed arrives.

PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT
There is of course one other problem: Mary has developed feelings for James and the feelings are mutual. She is able to talk with him freely, expressing herself in ways she never could with her husband Joseph. She finds herself thinking of him and wishing to stay with him despite her status as a married woman.

INNER TURMOIL
Brown does an excellent job of presenting the moral dilemmas Mary faces both in her captivity and her restoration to the English. I struggled with her status as a slave and the cruelty she endured and yet rejoiced too at the unexpected generosity and kindness of the captors towards that slave. I empathized with Mary’s painful and yet exhilarating transformation as she grew to accept and then love her life with the Indians. I mourned as she was separated from James, the man she truly loved, having to return to the oppressive life she led with Joseph, whom she no longer loved. I felt her grief over Sarah and her concern for her other missing children, her longing to be back with the Indians and her surprising loss of personal freedom as she returned to her old life of repression, rules and propriety. I mourned the loss of her faith and her inability to transcend her Puritan ingraining which favored the letter of the law over than the spirit. While she was able to embrace that all peoples are children of God thus deserving respect and compassion, she could not see that God himself existed beyond the Bible and spoken prayers.

TURMOIL OF A NATION
The empathy did not stop with the individual characters. Brown expands that empathy to an entire nation of people who, because they lost King Phillip’s war to the English, had their way of life taken from them. Although Brown is equally honest regarding the horrific actions of both sides in the war, the consequences for the Indians prove to be the most heartbreaking.

THE VALUE OF THE STORY
The depth of research that went into the creation of Flight of the Sparrow was evident in the compelling and authentic telling of the story. Brown is not hemmed in by the facts but rather uses those facts as a means of letting her imagination create a multi-layered and emotionally satisfying story. The life journeys of Mary and James not only touch the heart but challenge the mind as well. Just as Mr. Emerson’s Wife exposed and expanded my narrow way of thinking, Flight of the Sparrow caused me to search my heart when it came to meeting and knowing people who are not like me. While Brown’s aim may have been to tell a story about a period she was not familiar with so that she could learn more about her herself and her New England heritage, she has provided that service to this reader as well.

Really got into this story. It brought to life the living situations on both sides of settlers and Indians. How each lived their lives and how different their children were raised. Was not real sure where the "friendship" of the two main characters was going and was actually pleased with where it did. It was more realistic for the time. It's a book I will save to read again.

I have been reading a lot of stories about Indian captives lately, trying to better understand this time period in American history. This book ranks among the best. The author has researched her topic extensively, then filled in the blanks with her own fictional account of what the characters were experiencing. This made the book hard to put down. Plus, it put history in perspective and helped me to understand the Puritan ways as well as the Indian ways. I loved this book.

There were parts of this book I really like; it was well written, but parts I never want to read again anywhere. Finally a book with some positive truths about the Native American people during this period of our horrific invading history. The book is haunting, sad and reflective. The male truth of owning wives, children, indentured servants, slaves on the pretense of religion and with lots of superstition.

I would not want to see a film of this or probably read it again. I am not sure I would urge a friend to read it; that is usually how I rate a book, if it is good enough to share~