# James Michener's novels **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2020, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530 "2020-05-10T11:10:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/21 "2020-05-10T21:39:43Z")
I absolutely love them. Poland was probably my favorite, used that for a book report in high school while the other students picked 200 page ghost written athletic biographies. Michener and Clancy used to be my long flight entertainment in the days prior to seat back entertainment. Amazon has them on Kindle specials fairly often. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/22 "2020-05-10T23:43:48Z")
[ **mhendo** > [@](#): > > Just out of interest, do you have an opinion about Wilbur Smith’s South Africa books, like When the Lion Feeds and its sequels? I used to love them as a teenager, but I suspect that they have their critics. > Reply With Quote I am a Wilbur Smith fan. I have read all of his books and enjoyed them. I have no idea as to how authentic they are though. I would also like **MrDibble’s** opinion of them ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/23 "2020-05-11T01:41:24Z")
OP checking in… I just realized that I \*have \*read a couple of (non-traditional) Michener works: **The Novel** and **Journey**. I recall enjoying both very much. mmm ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/24 "2020-05-11T02:18:03Z")
The Source and Hawaii were favorites of mine and I read them until the paperbacks fell apart. However, I always skipped the first chapter of Hawaii despite my interest in geology. I’ve read several of his other books but these still stick in my head though I haven’t read either of them in 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/25 "2020-05-11T02:21:33Z")
It took me about 5 years to finish The Source. True. I could only take so much at a time. Same with Hawaii. But I liked them both. Sort of gave up on him after that. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/26 "2020-05-11T02:22:47Z")
I too liked _Hawaii_ and _The Source_. _Hawaii_ had some errors in it, but I read it at the time of my first move here, in 1991, so that was interesting. I read _Mexico_, which alternated between “present day” (1950s, I think) and the past – the present-day portions were silly, but the parts covering the past were good. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/27 "2020-05-11T02:48:14Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I loved _The Source_ as well, especially the way it was presented. > > An international team of archeologists including a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew [del]walk into a bar[/del] arrive on the tell and start to dig. The first evening, one of them is taking a stroll at the top of the tell and kicks up a spent bullet from the 1948 war (The book was published before the 1967 war). Amused, he treats it like any other archeological finding, recording its location on a card including a sketch of its appearance, which is shown as an illustration in the book. > > Over a period of six months, two trenches are dug into the tell and artifacts are found, each of which has an illustration and they go back further and further in time until the bedrock of the tell is reached. The last object is a flint-bladed sickle at the dawn of agriculture. > > Then starting with that sickle each chapter covers the found object covering what was going on at the time and in a few cases, how it came to be there. In each chapter is a vignette in the present day where the three talk about their faith or lack of it). Don’t forget about the (don’t really think it’s a spoiler) fact that every segment taking place at the tell traces the descendants of the original caveman- all the way to the Arab guy. (or was it the Jewish guy? It’s been a while.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/28 "2020-05-11T03:33:43Z")
So am I the only one who’s read _Caravans_? ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/29 "2020-05-11T04:05:32Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > So am I the only one who’s read _Caravans_? No, I read that one about five or six times. In other words, I really liked it. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/30 "2020-05-11T04:51:22Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > In 1968, Michener was a member of the Electoral College He also wrote a book on politics that is surprisingly interesting today, maybe even more than when he wrote it in 1960: “Report of the County Chairman”. He analyzes the 1960 presidential election by giving a very detailed description of political activity at the most local level–the county and the precinct committee,as they try to convince voters to support JFK. At the time, it was written as a political report about JFK’s campaign. But now, it is even more interesting, as a historical and sociological look at American society in 1960. Michener describes men from the Democratic party having meetings with local businessmen trying to convince them to vote for JFK. And separate meetings where women campaigners met with their wives. He describes the new suburban housing developments, where all the houses were identical, but built in two models at two prices --eight thousand dollars, or sixteen thousand–and the different ways that the campaigners related to the different sub-categories of the new middle class. He discusses the oh-so-important issue of JFK being a Catholic, and attempts to overcome the prejudice against him for that. And in the end, he comes to the conclusion that all the effort was basically useless…very few citizens changed their minds . A surprisingly good read. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/31 "2020-05-11T06:40:09Z")
centennial was pretty good …especially the bit on how the midwestern farms ended up using migrant labor in the last 1/4th of the book also although she was a spoiled brat I felt sorry hor how the protagonist’s daughter ended up… I never have watched the whole mini-series that was based on it tho also, the bridges of Toko-Ri was great too although I knew how it was going to end … the parts about the first jet fighters were interesting too ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/32 "2020-05-11T07:33:05Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Just out of interest, do you have an opinion about Wilbur Smith’s South Africa books, like _When the Lion Feeds_ and its sequels? I used to love them as a teenager, but I suspect that they have their critics. Smith’s OK, not my usual genre but I’ve enjoyed a couple of his books. He at least has an advantage in that he’s (mostly) writing about stuff he know, so the “feel” is accurate. An exception would be the Ancient Egyptian series, but I enjoyed that anyway (as a fantasy novel) ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/33 "2020-05-11T14:15:56Z")
Dredging memory as best I can – I think I’ve read fiction by Michener as follows: _Tales of the South Pacific_, _The Bridges at Toko-Ri_, _The Drifters_, and six of what a poster calls “the big fat ones”. I’ll admit to not being a tremendous fan – have found much of the wealth of information, interesting; but to me his writing style, and his putting-together of anyway the big fat offerings, are somewhat crude. Nonetheless, for my taste easy, and mostly agreeable, reading. Another confession: nearly all, read by me some decades ago – I now remember very little of the content of any of them (this I feel to be “down to” me, rather than Michener !). > [@salinqmind](#): > > James Michener wrote one modern novel - The Drifters? - about druggie hippies travelling around exotic countries, I hated that one. Hoped they would all overdose and drop dead… I also hated _The Drifters_– but read it throughout, without actual excruciating pain: as remarked above, everything I’ve come across by Michener, I’ve found highly readable, “whatever else…” To me, the whole premise and content, and the youthful ghastly characters, came across as vomitously twee / gooey / cloying. Worst of all for me, was the sort-of-mentor character whom the kids acquire – approx. of their parents’ generation: a rather crisp, highly-organised kind of military type; conservative in many ways, but oddly, with a considerable degree of empathy / sympathy vis-a-vis the kids. This guy is referred to as “the Tech Rep”: for me, his “smug rough diamond” whole being, was detestable. I just wanted the kids to die; but I hoped for a long-drawn-out and horrible death for the Tech Rep. > [@nightshadea](#): > > also, the bridges of Toko-Ri was great too although I knew how it was going to end … the parts about the first jet fighters were interesting too As with the other works – I read _TBoT-R_ throughout, and quite enjoyed the experience; but now remember almost nothing about the book. My being a railway enthusiast causes me sometimes to react to – in the broadest sense – works of art, in perverse ways not intended by their creators. One is informed that the novel’s eponymous bridges, in North Korea, carry a rail main line, vital to the China / N.K. side in the conflict for maintaining the southbound flow of war-waging gear; hence their being a crucial bombing target. I found that – irrespective of anything about Cold War good / bad guys – my sympathies were with the imagined heroic North Korean railwaymen, giving their all to keep things rolling in defiance of the Yanks and their bombs. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/34 "2020-05-11T14:35:03Z")
“Topic-drift department” post – Something by Michener which I’ve read and liked (albeit, as per my previous post, read long ago and almost all forgotten) – non-fiction: his _Iberia_, publ. 1968. About his experiences of Spain and Portugal: I think – memory perhaps at fault – particularly Spain, which he loved and where he spent much time (to be honest, I remember nothing about the book’s coverage of Portugal). At the time, I found much of what he had to say about Spain and the Spaniards, informative, perceptive and interesting. I think I recall correctly, that Michener – not being any great distance to the left on the political spectrum – considered the Franco regime not to be Utopia, but not horrendously evil either. > [@Fir\_na\_tine](#): > > If you are a fan of his writing try some of the novels by the late Kenneth Roberts. Brings history to life “warts and all”! I’ve read several of Kenneth Roberts’s novels: greatly enjoyed – to me, more enjoyable than Michener, and I seem to remember more about Roberts’s books. I don’t think it would have occurred to me to “name the two in one breath” – I perceive big differences between their respective bodies of work, though both can be categorised generally as “historical”. Roberts’s _Oliver Wiswell_ particularly appealed to me – likely, in part because of my being British – the War of Independence seen from a Loyalist point of view. I had to like the way in which Wiswell, the hero and first-person narrator – displaying prejudices which one in his position would tend to hold – opines that most partisans of independence are variously malcontents / dodgy characters / feigning revolutionary zeal to help them in pursuit of base gain / unstable and violence-prone / the 18th-century equivalent of the tinfoil-hat brigade. Not imagining for one moment, that Roberts genuinely thought that the USA should not have come into being: as authors like to remind us, IT’S FICTION – some of an author’s characters will not share the author’s own views. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/35 "2020-05-11T14:52:02Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Don’t forget about the (don’t really think it’s a spoiler) fact that every segment taking place at the tell traces the descendants of the original caveman- all the way to the Arab guy. (or was it the Jewish guy? It’s been a while.) The Arab guy. (I reread it last year on my Kindle) The family’s original name was Ur. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/36 "2020-05-11T18:32:56Z")
I’ve never read him, but for some reason I’ve always imagined his tomes to be rather dry. Is there much in the way of humor in the typical Michener work? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/37 "2020-05-11T18:53:41Z")
I absolutely devoured his novels in high school, after \*The Source \*appeared (in what I now realize was a fit of hilarious optimism on the teacher’s part) on a summer reading list for my 9th grade history class. I think I was probably the only student who read it but I ended up returning to it on a few more occasions over the years. > [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I’ve never read him, but for some reason I’ve always imagined his tomes to be rather dry. Is there much in the way of humor in the typical Michener work? I don’t remember much in the way of humor. The draw to his books (and I think college was the last time I read anything of his, so my memory is a bit fuzzy) is the scope. He manages to create these multi-generational storylines that feel coherent and whole. When he names the book, say, “Hawaii,” he really is making Hawaii the main character, and uses these broad, sweeping arcs to write about it. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/38 "2020-05-11T18:56:38Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I absolutely devoured his novels in high school, after \*The Source \*appeared (in what I now realize was a fit of hilarious optimism on the teacher’s part) on a summer reading list for my 9th grade history class. I think I was probably the only student who read it but I ended up returning to it on a few more occasions over the years. > > I don’t remember much in the way of humor. The draw to his books (and I think college was the last time I read anything of his, so my memory is a bit fuzzy) is the scope. He manages to create these multi-generational storylines that feel coherent and whole. When he names the book, say, “Hawaii,” he really is making Hawaii the main character, and uses these broad, sweeping arcs to write about it. Hawaii does have some funny bits. In the modern day section one of the present day descendants of missionaries (who came to Hawaii to do good, and did quite well) writes a story about his ancestors, illustrating it with pictures of how small and tightly packed the sleeping areas for the missionary couples were, and then listing the dates of birth for the children born to those couples. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/39 "2020-05-11T19:04:15Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > The Arab guy. (I reread it last year on my Kindle) The family’s original name was Ur. I also liked that the dig in the book _missed_ some important artifacts. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530/40 "2020-05-11T19:05:57Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I also liked that the dig in the book _missed_ some important artifacts. It came within feet of discovering the first El, right? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/james-micheners-novels/853530.md?page=3)