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SONG OF THE TIDES
By: Tom Joseph
University of Alabama Press: Tuscaloosa, AL
2008 (pb)
Tom Joseph has written a wonderfully evocative tale of
the Calusa people and their initial contacts with the Spanish in 16th
Century southwest Florida. He has carefully mined the relatively few
primary documents from that era, mainly Spanish letters, memoranda and
journals as well as the archaeology of the Calusa to render this richly
constructed work of fiction.
The saga follows the efforts of several caciques,
or tribal chiefs, of the Calusa, the people of Escampaba, to find a way to
effectively deal with the invading Spanish military and the proselytizing
missionary priests who follow closely in their wake. It is a tale of
kindness and gentleness coupled with unsparing brutality; it is a tale that
describes bravery and gallantry as well as deception and cruelty on both
sides. Most of all it describes the painful dance of death the Europeans
and indigenous people are locked in as the two cultures, so terribly alien
to each other, follow paths of destiny that would ultimately degrade both.
Along the way, the reader is introduced to individuals
who will loom large in the playing out of this tragedy: Ishkara, the
shaman, who as regent, struggles mightily to create a succession following
the death of the wise cacique, Caalus, that might enable the Calusa
to deal with the Spaniards—perhaps in a way that will make it possible to
end the cycle of violence that is endemic whenever and wherever the Spanish
meet the tribal groups indigenous to La Florida; Escalante, a Spanish
prisoner and slave of the Calusa, who grows from boyhood to manhood during
the twenty years spanned in the novel, and struggles mightily with his
conscience and loyalties as he finds himself torn between his Spanish
birthright and his hatred of the Calusa for killing his brother, which is
tempered by his love for Aesha, daughter of Caalus; Carlos, son of Ishkara
and successor to Caalus, who tries to steer a middle way between
annihilation or abject surrender to the Spaniards; Stepana, the brutal and
scheming young warrior who covets Carlos’s ascendancy to the leadership of
the people of Escampaba as well as his wife, Aesha; Captain General Pedro
Menendez de Aviles, governor of La Florida, whose duty to the king is to
bring back gold and silver to Spain and Christianize the natives—peacefully,
if possible, but by any other means, if necessary.
These thumbnail sketches do not do justice to the
richness and depth of the characters Tom Joseph has fleshed out from the
pages of history and his imagination, but they may hint at the
conflicts—cultural, psychological, and historical—that drive the narrative.
This fiction based on fact is reminiscent of the wonderful novels of the
First Peoples penned by Kathleen and W.Michael Gear, who rely on archaeology
and ethnography to lend reality and verisimilitude to their tales; because
Song of the Tides tells of the time of contact, Mr. Joseph is also
able to draw from the historical record. The novel is beautifully
written—almost lyrical at times as it describes the lush beauty of ancient
Florida—but it is ultimately a sad and tragic tale, for we know what the
outcome must be—and even more tragic, we know this outcome will be played
out over and over again over the next 300 years.
Three trowels for Tom Joseph’s excellent first novel.
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