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Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite
Jeanne Blanchet's Rite of Passage tells the story of the 1620 Mayflower voyage through the eyes of ten-year-old Sara Ann Clifton, now an eighty-two-year-old woman, who was reluctant to undertake the journey from Leiden to the New World. The story traces the perilous adventures of the Separatists: the cramped and squalid conditions of the Mayflower's gun deck, the false starts aboard the leaking Speedwell, and the harrowing Atlantic crossing characterized by scurvy, storms, and death. Sara Ann is first seen as a homesick child, then as a survivor who watches the miscarriage experienced by her mother, and the first winter that decimates the colony. But what happens next with the establishment of the Plymouth Colony?
Rite of Passage is a historical novel that is told in an intimate narrative voice. Jeanne Blanchet makes me feel close to the characters, especially Sara Ann. The characterization is top-notch. Sara is a complex character, a young girl who sees things that test the minds and hearts of grown-ups, and she tells the story in a way that makes one feel as if she sat across the table to share the story. Apart from the narrator, there are nuanced characters like Squanto and the militaristic Myles Standish. The setting in the Mayflower has a lot of symbolism, and the author delivers sensory images, like the bilge stench of the ship and the rat-infested quarters. This book examines cultural collision, religious persecution, and the rise of democratic governance in a way that reflects truths about colonies. One interesting aspect is that the coming-of-age of Sara Anne coincides with the birth of a new colony. A book that shines with historical detail, dialogue, and plot.
