Summary: Don't bother reading the back of the book on this one. It references events in the last 75 pages or so (of a ~400 page book). Not cool. It's basically relevant life history for three random people (ok, not so random. It's an author, his editor, and a critic) and then an incident that might have comprised the entire book if this was any other author.
Comments: I don't think this was up to his usual standards. If you read my summary you can probably understand my reason. On the other hand, it could be that the back of the book biased me into thinking the four sections of the book were connected beyond having some of the same characters. Then again, this book seemed to be trying to be a connected whole as opposed to the others which are more a series of short stories that share a location and some characters/families. It's like he was trying to get into a new style buy wasn't willing to abandon his old style completely. Not sure if his fictional author was doing some of that. Also, I have to wonder what the fictional critic would have to say about Michener. Probably nothing good.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Texas, by James Michener
Summary: Generic summary of any of Michener's books: the history of [somewhere or something] as told by the stories of various fictional people who lived through it. In this case, the subject is Texas, as you might have guessed from the title. This starts with explorations coming from Spanish Mexico and continues through about the time the book was written. Sprinkled throughout is the story of a task force chosen to make recommendations about a Texas history curriculum for the schools and the public meetings said task force conducts to learn about various aspects of the history.
Comments: First the generic comment about my not believing these people would be quite so interrelated if we were following real people instead. Although, I guess just because I was reading about the parents of both of these characters in a previous chapter doesn't mean there had been any prior interaction between the two families. So maybe I should be surprised that the various threads I was following come together at various points. That's why that particular cotton-grower was chosen: because his descendants would later interact with other characters in the story. And the fact that multiple generations of the various families were worth following, there's the saying "Like father, like son". The son of the rich oil guy is also rich. Another character follows in the footsteps of his grandfather and great-grandfather and is a Texas Rangers. One family has several generations of cotton-growers. Maybe next book I read I should pay more attention to how often the different threads of the story come together versus what is just based on the fact that I'd already met the character who comes into this person's life.
Next generic comment is that it was very informative and I learned a lot. I don't think I would pick up a book of Texas history for the fun of it, but apparently I would read the history of fictional, plausible families living in Texas throughout the years. Which is almost the same thing but with stories rather than facts. But I still learned something doing it.
I'm not sure I have too much to say about Texas specifically except for not being so thrilled about the hunting, the football, and the anti-Democrat sentiment. I definitely have a far different world view than some of the characters, that's for sure. The talk of illegal immigration was interesting because I don't think it's any less of a problem now than it was when the book was written ~15 years ago.
Comments: First the generic comment about my not believing these people would be quite so interrelated if we were following real people instead. Although, I guess just because I was reading about the parents of both of these characters in a previous chapter doesn't mean there had been any prior interaction between the two families. So maybe I should be surprised that the various threads I was following come together at various points. That's why that particular cotton-grower was chosen: because his descendants would later interact with other characters in the story. And the fact that multiple generations of the various families were worth following, there's the saying "Like father, like son". The son of the rich oil guy is also rich. Another character follows in the footsteps of his grandfather and great-grandfather and is a Texas Rangers. One family has several generations of cotton-growers. Maybe next book I read I should pay more attention to how often the different threads of the story come together versus what is just based on the fact that I'd already met the character who comes into this person's life.
Next generic comment is that it was very informative and I learned a lot. I don't think I would pick up a book of Texas history for the fun of it, but apparently I would read the history of fictional, plausible families living in Texas throughout the years. Which is almost the same thing but with stories rather than facts. But I still learned something doing it.
I'm not sure I have too much to say about Texas specifically except for not being so thrilled about the hunting, the football, and the anti-Democrat sentiment. I definitely have a far different world view than some of the characters, that's for sure. The talk of illegal immigration was interesting because I don't think it's any less of a problem now than it was when the book was written ~15 years ago.
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