Hawaii: A Novel by James A. Michener
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Book Summary Author: James A. Michener Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2002-07-09 ISBN: 0375760377 Number of pages: 937 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks |
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Book Reviews of the Hawaii: A Novel
Customer Review: Not my favorite
Summary: 3 Stars
My favorite Michener novel is "The Novel". This is probably partly because I'm a writer myself. As I contemplated my review for Hawaii, I did read some of the reviews and they fascinated me. It would be interesting to know a profile of readers who love Michener. Please indulge me regarding the comments below prefacing my review of Hawaii.
Michener's books are almost invariably extremely lengthy. And he gets away with what would be literary suicide for many writers. Most all his books include hundreds of pages of exposition: geologic research, cultural backgrounds, historical references, family trees/genealogies, archaeological discoveries, geographical information, etc. I've read stern warnings in many instructional books regarding the temptation to include all your research in a novel just because you spent so many hours compiling it. The books state how boring and tedious this can become for readers to wade through all this exposition in a desperate search for the plot.
It was a little amusing to me how many readers acknowledged Michener's penchant for massive exposition. Then the reviewer typically goes on to say that the book was still great and engrossing, etc. I'm a researcher as well as a writer, so it's saying a lot for me to state that I think Michener does go a little overboard at times with the truckloads of background material. But he's great enough to still keep an interesting plot moving along and sell tons of books.
Regarding Hawaii, I read it and, like others, found sections of it quite fascinating. One section, however, disturbed me quite a bit. It seemed as if the missionaries were caricatured as horrible human beings. They were foolish, sour, stern, mean-spirited, and even cruel at times. I'm not saying Michener is lying. I believe that some early missionaries misunderstood grossly what it meant to evangelize and invite people to consider the salvation offered through Christ's death on the cross for mankind. They thought that native people's cultural mores must be forsaken for them to be "Christianized." They sometimes made cultural mountains out of molehills and forced standards upon native peoples which did not even come from the Bible. Christian missions has changed in huge ways and for many decades it has spread the gospel of Christ without destroying the cultures and customs of various people groups.
Maybe I'm overreacting a little, because most reviewers seemed to realize that Michener was not cynically condemning all Christian missions with ugly, biased intentions. But, in any case, I'm just recording my reactions to the book. Please don't email me with bristling retorts as if I've bad-mouthed Michener. I have read some of his books and agree that he's a great writer. If you have an interest in writing, I especially recommend that you read The Novel. It is excellent.