PRELUDE: SALEM VILLAGE, MASSACHUSETTS, MAY 30, 1706
This setting exposition begins the novel “Conversions”, written by Katherine Howe, the visiting writer-in-residence at Lenoir-Rhyne University. It is immediately obvious that we are being transported to a world of mystery and uncertainty – Salem. This excerpt begins in a perpetual fog as we see Ann Putman, Jr. (named only as “Ann”) visiting Reverend Green to make a confession. Howe writes in the genre of creative non-fiction in which true stories (in this case, a real exchange between a suspected “witch” and a pastor in Salem) are reinvented in an imaginative and figurative format that appeals to the reader much like a fictional story.
Howe, who is herself related to “witches” of Salem, employs all of the tools of fiction in her portrayal of Ann during a very confusing time in our history. Figurative language is used extensively throughout the excerpt in question. Paragraphs 12, 13, and 14 in particular read like an engaging short story as we are told about the qualities of the setting in great detail, even down to the cat curling up in the sun:
The patch of sunlight on the floor is so bright, I have to squint. A long stretch of shadow, and a cat wraps around the doorjamb and flattens himself out in the sunshine with a yawn. He rolls on his back, batting at ghosts.
– Katherine Howe, Conversions, 2014.
The level of detail is rich, and in addition, Howe develops the historical figures of Ann Putnam, Goody Green, Reverend Green, the infant, (and in some capacities, the cat), in a similar way that characters are developed in fiction. She accomplishes this by writing in a first-person voice, which allows us to understand the emotional affect and predicament of Ann, our narrator. We are endeared to her situation, and we therefore understand her reluctance to confess to Reverend Green, who is portrayed as dominant, sitting atop a high chair, looking down on her with ink-stained teeth.
The emotion is especially heightened by this passage:
‘Come now, Ann,’ the Reverend coaxes me from within his study…I’d like to sit, my feet are so tired…’There’s nothing to be afraid of.’ But there is. There is everything to be afraid of.
– Katherine Howe, Conversions, 2014.
There is great skill evident in Howe’s craft. Her ability to transform what would otherwise be a passage from history textbook or an academic essay on the tribulations of Ann Putnam into an engaging, flowing piece of narrative literature is inspiring. We are drawn into a world that did indeed exist three-hundred and nine years ago, but we are drawn not as spectators, but as the character Ann Putnam herself. This is the sign of literary mastery.