Review: A Pentagram for "Children of Salem"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 22, 2012
Most observers looking back at the 1692 Salem tragedy do so from contemporary eyes. Of course, there is no such thing as witchcraft. Therefore, it was entirely a delusion, they would assert. Miller's "The Crucible" sets the standard here. But we are not dealing with the current time, but with the seventeenth century, and people thought quite differently. What Rob Walker does very well is to reconstruct the way that ordinary people actually felt and reacted during that period. One of the theories - that it was a case of havenots against haves, pitting Salem Town against Salem Village, is set forth here quite clearly. These are real people, not caricatures. (Yes, I know that there are some errors - Goya had not yet lived, and nobody in Salem in 1692 would have recognized a reference to Captain Ahab.) The genuine heroism of Giles Corey, and the saintliness of Goodwife Nurse, echo through the ages, and their stories are well told here.Other contributing factors could be mentioned. There was an outbreak of ergot, or diseased rye, the common bread source, that was hallucinogenic, in Essex County at that time. And, coming after King Philip's War and the continued fighting in what became Maine, some folks who resettled in peaceful Salem might have experienced PTSD just as surely as returning veterans now from Iraq or Afghanistan.But the sinews of the actual events are adhered to in Walker's book, with solid research. It really did end with the accusations against the wife of Governor Phipps. (And while he played an ignoble role, Cotton Mather redeemed much of his reputation later on by bravely calling for innoculations against smallpox, which saved many more lives than those lost here in 1692.)It is a gripping story, here very well told. Five stars ... need I say, a Pentagram for Mr. Walker's efforts?