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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
2.5 stars.
The picture Michener paints of the Caribbean is a macabre canvas indeed. You'll see very little of what tourists are exposed to in the jeweled Sea. The Caribbean was / is a sordid, violent place. There are small threads that let one sort of follow a few genealogies, but mostly each chapter is a stand alone snapshot of the islands' history. Michener does island hop, so you do learn of each island's past. Michener calls Caribbean a narrative and that it is.
I think I finished this saga for spite. Several times I was going to stop reading, but finally the human slaughter stopped long enough to let me breathe a sigh of relief. For sure, you will learn things about Columbus you wish you never knew, but it is about the time frame which begins Michener's history. First, a chapter of an island's savagery, which sets the tone for the entire novel. The tale ends in the late 1980s.
Good luck staying with this. It makes the middle ages of England and Europe pale by comparison.
The picture Michener paints of the Caribbean is a macabre canvas indeed. You'll see very little of what tourists are exposed to in the jeweled Sea. The Caribbean was / is a sordid, violent place. There are small threads that let one sort of follow a few genealogies, but mostly each chapter is a stand alone snapshot of the islands' history. Michener does island hop, so you do learn of each island's past. Michener calls Caribbean a narrative and that it is.
I think I finished this saga for spite. Several times I was going to stop reading, but finally the human slaughter stopped long enough to let me breathe a sigh of relief. For sure, you will learn things about Columbus you wish you never knew, but it is about the time frame which begins Michener's history. First, a chapter of an island's savagery, which sets the tone for the entire novel. The tale ends in the late 1980s.
Good luck staying with this. It makes the middle ages of England and Europe pale by comparison.
This book moved to slow and was hard to get into the narrative.
informative
tense
medium-paced
I dutifully finished this book club pick, and found this book to be a chore. I just could not connect to the book and when I started to, it jumped 100 years and introduced a new cast. No more Michener for me........
Another epic saga from Michener crossed off my list! I loved this one a little bit less than the others I've read, but enjoyed it all the same. I appreciated the in-depth focus on one island per chapter, some of them repeated as the book progressed towards modern times. There's so much about Caribbean history that I don't know! (for example, just about everything). By focusing on the extremely different backgrounds of the different countries, it helped bring them into sharper relief but also highlighted just how strongly their fates were tied to world events, especially in Europe (and eventually, America).
This book took me forever to read, in part because of lack of time but also because there were times when the writing felt really forced and cliched (especially as it got closer to modern day) and because I began to get annoyed that there were no female characters that were allowed to exist on their own without being tied to a romantic partner. Even (and especially) the final chapter! Ugh. I feel like this also probably happened a lot in his other books but it was less obvious, and there was at least one strong female character in each of the other books I've read by him.
Overall, a fascinating look at world history as played out in the Caribbean. I don't think I remembered much of it, but it at least helped me realize just how much I don't know--which is also important!
This book took me forever to read, in part because of lack of time but also because there were times when the writing felt really forced and cliched (especially as it got closer to modern day) and because I began to get annoyed that there were no female characters that were allowed to exist on their own without being tied to a romantic partner. Even (and especially) the final chapter! Ugh. I feel like this also probably happened a lot in his other books but it was less obvious, and there was at least one strong female character in each of the other books I've read by him.
Overall, a fascinating look at world history as played out in the Caribbean. I don't think I remembered much of it, but it at least helped me realize just how much I don't know--which is also important!
Really nice read in s pretty complex subject. it’s a history of multiple places all considered one place and multiple countries and multiple allegiances. A really difficult task to get things all wrapped up together and cohesive. Well done story!
medium-paced
Huge book, very informative but a bit of a textbook slog to get through. When I consider that the author was about 83 years old when he completed this work, I have to think of it as an amazing effort. The one thing I really did not like was the creation of a fictional island to describe elements of the Caribbean world. This book tried to be historically accurate but that device made me question everything too much. I am someone who prefers a book of 300 pages or so, but I was able to get thru it because each chapter was somewhat independent of the others and tended to focus on a particular island, region, or time period.
The informational part of the book was pretty impressive and is the Hallmark of Michener's writing. The characters are not so important, but here the plot or plots flowed well, and the last chapter wrapping it all up was a nice touch. Great book to read on vacation in the Caribbean.
This is one of my favorite books, I literally could not put it down. It's about turbulent history of the Caribbean. Excellent Read!