Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe

I picked up Jamestown at a trip to Barnes & Noble with gift cards in hand. Growing up in Virginia, you get your share of Virginia state history, especially the first successful colony in Jamestown. It caught my eye for that reason alone, and once I read the blurb on the back I was intrigued. It did not disappoint. Matthew Sharpe has taken the colonization of the new world into a whole different stratosphere -- in his version, colonists come down in an armored vehicle from Manhattan (which happens to be at war with Brooklyn) in search of some friendly natives with food and fuel supply.

The whole cast of characters are represented: John Smith, John Ratcliffe, Christopher Newport, and Powhatan . . . and Sharpe presents John Rolfe's love affair with Pocahontas (that's right, Disney got it wrong. Those who know their history will attest that Pocahontas married John Rolfe, affectionately called Johnny in the story). In this almost apoplectic world Sharpe creates, Johnny and Pocahontas correspond via email and text messaging, until both lose their electronic devices and have to resort to telepathy. It all sounds strange because it is. But Sharpe makes some important points about the damaging effects of colonization to a generation who only knows it historically and writes with such wit to make this particular history relevant again.

[Photo: www.portlandmercury.com]