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    Caleb
    Caleb
    Caleb
    Audiobook8 hours

    Caleb

    Written by Charles Alverson

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “You don’t want to buy me. I’ll kill the man who buys me.”

    Despite that outrageous threat, plantation owner Boyd Jardine buys Caleb and puts him to work in the fields. But soon Jardine discovers that his new slave is both better educated and more widely traveled than himself. When Jardine’s pregnant wife dies and Caleb saves the unborn child, Jardine grows increasingly dependent on him not only as a servant but also as a companion—and so their relationship as master and slave begins to change.

    As the Civil War looms and Caleb’s thirst for freedom grows, Jardine reluctantly agrees to let the slave buy his freedom. Caleb has no money, but Jardine comes up with a scheme: Caleb can earn the price of freedom by fighting—and winning—boxing matches. But—in an ever more turbulent political climate—even if Caleb makes enough to purchase his freedom, what then? Freedom papers don’t mean much in a state of war.

    Set against a conflict that threatens to split a nation, Caleb’s story is both tragic and triumphant.

    Revised edition: This edition of Caleb includes editorial revisions.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateNov 4, 2014
    ISBN9781491578780
    Caleb
    Author

    Charles Alverson

    Charles Alverson was born in California and, after living in England and Wales, now lives as a confirmed expatriate in Serbia. He has been writing novels since 1971 across a range of genres: thriller, detective, young adult, humor, and popular fiction. He has also written children’s books, short plays, and nonfiction, and he worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone. Alverson also cowrote the screenplays for the films Jabberwocky and Brazil. Caleb is his first historical novel, but not his last.

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    Reviews for Caleb

    4.5/5

    40 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Quite a tale that’s told. Can’t imagine the chaos of those days. Historic fiction gives an amazing glimpse into our American history.
    • 5/5
      It held my attention. I wonder if there's another one? I hope there is it seems like the ending was open.
    • 5/5
      very beautiful story !
      Although I wish It continued after the war ...
    • 2/5
      This book was a Goodreads Giveaway.

      Mr. Alverson took on a new genre with his first historical fiction endeavor, and while the result for me was lackluster, I expect others may find this more enjoyable.

      A young back man is sold into slavery in the south just as the rumblings of the Civil War begin to spread across the nation. This man, trained and educated as a free black in Boston, finds himself out of place in this new life and determined to win his freedom. The story grows with his relationship to his slave-master, and eventually turns into something of a military fiction.

      The story arcs and plot points are strong, and the characterization is clear. The book ran aground for me on several points, though, which kept my enjoyment level low and required extraordinarily steadfast commitment to finish. The first big challenge for me was the narrative distance. For much of the early part of the book, the story progresses swiftly and in passing. Only in the rarest of occasions do we draw in close enough to experience a scene fully first-hand. This gave the overwhelming sensation of "telling, not showing". It became easy for me to be distant from the characters and not invest in their well-being.

      The second issue was pacing. Mr. Alverson took a circuitous route to his final scene and filled the intervening pages with an assortment of plot points which often assembled themselves disjointedly. Major aspects of the story took place without a struggle or any real sense of tension, while others that held me in suspension were quite meaningless. If there were more opportunities taken to raise the stakes, I might call it a rollercoaster. As it was, the book felt like a car stuttering its way across a desert.

      Finally, I have to say something about the character of Caleb himself. It is perhaps a statement about myself that I cannot abide a perfect character. I've called out this trait in many authors in the young-adult fiction genre as well. When an author falls in love with his or her character, the book becomes scene upon scene of excuses to show them doing the amazing, the impossible, or the unexpected. Without opportunity to struggle or fail, to overcome and grow, the character they want so much to stand tall is left lying flat. Caleb, unfortunately, falls firmly into this group. I should feel much more for a man in his situations than I did. I should cry for him and plead his case in my head as the pages turn. Instead, he never connected, either with me as a reader, or even with the other slaves suffering on his plantation. This is probably the biggest failure of the story overall.

      As I said before, others may find more value and enjoyment here than I did. I marked this review as 2-stars, what Goodreads calls: "okay". I hope that with these criticisms in mind, others may read it more prepared and find it worth more stars.