THE PRIMROSE WAY

In the ``Great Episodes'' series, an improbable but satisfying account of an independent young woman's life among the Puritans in 1633. When Rebekah first sees the primitive settlement of Agawam (now Ipswich, Massachusetts), her high spirits are temporarily quelled; still, the bright promise of friendship with a young Pawtucket woman, Qunnequawese, distracts Rebekah from the restrictive Puritan life, as do encounters with Mishannock, a tribal holy man who has achieved nearly immortal status among settlers and his own people. Rebekah's attraction to Pawtucket ways—as well as to Mishannock—forces her choice between two cultures. Rebekah is no martyr: she chooses true love. Koller's vividly re-created landscape successfully de- romanticizes the early settlers' struggles and avoids the absolutes (us-good, them-bad). She illuminates the Puritans' concerns with the flesh as well as with the spirit, backing her plot with some facts. Politically contemporary, and not historically impossible—a rousing good tale. Notes; glossaries; bibliography; pronunciation guide. (Fiction. 12+)