By Paul Carrier
At 585 pages, My Name Is Resolute is a hefty novel, even in paperback. But considering the seemingly endless adventures of its intrepid subject, it’s hard to imagine how the lengthy tale could have been condensed.
The novel is narrated by the Resolute of the title. When it opens, Resolute Talbot is an elderly woman (by 18th-century standards) who looks back on her tumultuous life over the span of more than five decades, from her youth in Jamaica in 1729 to her senior years in Massachusetts.
To say that Resolute has exploits aplenty during that period would be a gross understatement. Raised in a loving, well-to-do family on a Caribbean plantation, Resolute and her older sister Patience are kidnapped by pirates, sold to Puritan families in Maine, seized by Indians and delivered to a Montréal orphanage. And all within the first 134 pages.
By June 1730, Resolute’s parents are dead. Patience has been impregnated by a rapist. And her brother August has joined the crew of a privateer. Already, the aptly named Resolute has survived hardships at sea and on land, relying on her determination and ingenuity to carry on. And that’s just within the first quarter of the novel, covering a relatively brief period.
Needless to say, the young Resolute’s already remarkable life becomes all the more extraordinary as the ensuing years unfold, heralding the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.
Although Resolute recounts her life from the vantage point of an aged woman, her tone throughout reflects how she saw the world during whatever point in time she is describing.
Thus, readers can infer, from the young Resolute’s life at sea with pirates and privateers, that her sister Patience is being sexually abused aboard ship. Yet the innocent Resolute, who does not personally witness the abuse, is unaware of what her sister is going through.
Similarly, as a child in captivity, Resolute holds firmly to the belief that her murdered mother survived the pirate attack, despite Patience’s gentle but persistent attempts to disabuse her. While living in New France, Resolute thinks she is going to die when she begins menstruating, and she is baffled to discover that Patience is pregnant.
As Resolute ages, so too her characterizations of life’s joys and travails become more insightful and mature. Still, the novel sometimes has an episodic feel, as our steely, self-reliant heroine bounces from one adventure to the next.
My Name Is Resolute is plot-driven, thanks to Resolute’s roller coaster ride of a life, which has more ups and downs than any amusement-park ride. The passage of the decades, Resolute’s hopscotching from Jamaica to Maine to New France and, finally, Massachusetts, and the author’s vivid imagination make for a compelling story with a grand sweep.
It may be hard for a 21st-century reader to accept that any one person could experience all that Resolute encounters, but the novel is set in an unsettled and violent time. Readers willing to suspend their disbelief will enjoy racing through these pages, to learn what comes next. The well-researched novel accurately captures many facets of the period, although a glaringly erroneous reference to the timing of the Valley Forge encampment is unfortunate.
Resolute is a strong and resourceful woman whose myriad triumphs and losses personalize much of what transpired in a turbulent century that witnessed a clash for the control of North America, followed by the birth of a new nation. As Resolute explains in a reflective epilogue: “Any woman’s life has its heartbreaks and raptures, its evils, its blessings.”
The novel is narrated by the Resolute of the title. When it opens, Resolute Talbot is an elderly woman (by 18th-century standards) who looks back on her tumultuous life over the span of more than five decades, from her youth in Jamaica in 1729 to her senior years in Massachusetts.
To say that Resolute has exploits aplenty during that period would be a gross understatement. Raised in a loving, well-to-do family on a Caribbean plantation, Resolute and her older sister Patience are kidnapped by pirates, sold to Puritan families in Maine, seized by Indians and delivered to a Montréal orphanage. And all within the first 134 pages.
By June 1730, Resolute’s parents are dead. Patience has been impregnated by a rapist. And her brother August has joined the crew of a privateer. Already, the aptly named Resolute has survived hardships at sea and on land, relying on her determination and ingenuity to carry on. And that’s just within the first quarter of the novel, covering a relatively brief period.
Needless to say, the young Resolute’s already remarkable life becomes all the more extraordinary as the ensuing years unfold, heralding the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.
Although Resolute recounts her life from the vantage point of an aged woman, her tone throughout reflects how she saw the world during whatever point in time she is describing.
Thus, readers can infer, from the young Resolute’s life at sea with pirates and privateers, that her sister Patience is being sexually abused aboard ship. Yet the innocent Resolute, who does not personally witness the abuse, is unaware of what her sister is going through.
Similarly, as a child in captivity, Resolute holds firmly to the belief that her murdered mother survived the pirate attack, despite Patience’s gentle but persistent attempts to disabuse her. While living in New France, Resolute thinks she is going to die when she begins menstruating, and she is baffled to discover that Patience is pregnant.
As Resolute ages, so too her characterizations of life’s joys and travails become more insightful and mature. Still, the novel sometimes has an episodic feel, as our steely, self-reliant heroine bounces from one adventure to the next.
My Name Is Resolute is plot-driven, thanks to Resolute’s roller coaster ride of a life, which has more ups and downs than any amusement-park ride. The passage of the decades, Resolute’s hopscotching from Jamaica to Maine to New France and, finally, Massachusetts, and the author’s vivid imagination make for a compelling story with a grand sweep.
It may be hard for a 21st-century reader to accept that any one person could experience all that Resolute encounters, but the novel is set in an unsettled and violent time. Readers willing to suspend their disbelief will enjoy racing through these pages, to learn what comes next. The well-researched novel accurately captures many facets of the period, although a glaringly erroneous reference to the timing of the Valley Forge encampment is unfortunate.
Resolute is a strong and resourceful woman whose myriad triumphs and losses personalize much of what transpired in a turbulent century that witnessed a clash for the control of North America, followed by the birth of a new nation. As Resolute explains in a reflective epilogue: “Any woman’s life has its heartbreaks and raptures, its evils, its blessings.”
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