The Drifters

Recently both my husband and I wanted to reread this. Our old copy must have been read to death, as it wasn't around, so I bought a new one.

Yes, it is still as gripping as I remember, but I think I felt less involved in it. I was born only a few years after the young people in the book, but enough that their culture was never mine. My 'drifting' took a very different tangent. And theirs never attracted me. Now at the age of the older men, I don't feel like them either. Perhaps partly because they are so, not misogynic - I don't think they really hate women - but just so wrapped up in their male world that women don't exist for them.

The two older men are just as much drifters as the young people. They have never settled down, although show more they have found constructive ways of living.

I think what really struck me while reading this is how much has changed in the last 50 years. The kind of travel they do is no longer possible. And much of what they see no longer exists in the same way. More people means less space. More people travelling means that it is all much more organized. The hotel here in Vienna by the skating rink (and where I in the 70s still skated to 'Rock around the Clock') is about to be torn down. show less

A Generation Writ Across the World

This is my second time through The Drifters, I originally read it when I was in my twenties. Michener's prose is just as lush as I remembered. He captures the desperation, amazement, intense questioning and driving need of a generation to break free of their parents value system.

Flung across the gorgeous landscapes of frozen Norway's Trömso, Africa's British colonies in turmoil, Spain's sunny and free Torremolinos, Portugal's quiet and intimate Algarve, down miles of Africa's unspoiled coastline to the ancient city of Marrakesh, our Drifters story plays out.

Through the eyes of Mr. Fairbanks of World Mutual Funds, we meet Britta, a dazzling Norwegian girl who desires to escape the dark nights of show more Scandinavia and her father's obsession with Ceylon, a land he'll never get to see.

Monica, the stunning daughter of English parents just barely holding onto power in a British colony in Africa, contemptuous of her father's fear of failing, is eager to flee the coop.

Gretchen, a lovely, intelligent girl from Boston, runs up against the tension between the protesters of the Vietnam War and the Police. After a seriously violent encounter, her parents beg Mr. Fairbanks to take her away from Boston for some healing.

Cato, a bright and inquisitive black man from Philadelphia, is rising to the top of his peer group. He is tired of watching his neighborhood and friends being beaten down by the system. A mentor sponsors his flight to find better answers.

Yigal or Bruce, as he's known as by his American grandparents, is caught between two worlds. He becomes known as'The boy from Quarash' for his part in the six day war in Israel. But his Grandfather wants him to give up his Israeli citizenship for a life in America.

Our Drifters meet Joe, an American young man, faced with the emotional choice of fighting an immorral war or running from the draft and facing jail, in Torremolinos, Spain.

Their adventures begin at the bar called The Alamo, where Joe tends bar and holds down the business for a friend. This sweeping tale will entertain, amuse, educate and break your heart. This is a read for all generations. show less

Here's what I wrote after reading in 1989: "A memorable tale of six teenagers trying to deal with the world and themsleves in the tumultuous late Sixties. They confront, and yet are not completely sure how to deal with, the issues of black and white co-existence, the Vietnam War, religion, conservation, and "drugs, sex, and rock and roll". "Come with me to Marakesh. . . ." I remember this a bit still, especially my first exposure to the bulls of Pamplona.

I first read this book when I was 14, in the 70's and I love it even though I cried at the end.
(I cried at the end because it was THE END) Gretchen, Joe, Cato, Britta, Yigal and even Monica were my friends, I loved them and hated them, I wanted to be there with them, one of them....and then the book ended and my friends were gone.
I started reading it again twice more but never finished...I know the end, I know my friends will be gone, and...times have changed, eh. BUT this book sits taped together on my bookshelf, although I'll never read it again, because when I was 14 this book moved me in such a way that no other book had done before.
If you are a child of the 60's and/or the 70's I highly recommend reading this book.

I got to the end of this long book because of the way the author developed the characters at the start of the book. However, there are some long and tedious sections (especially the one building up the character of Holt). I was a bit distrubed too that the narrator is somewhat of an enabler of the life style that these young people got into; but there are lots more dodgy characters in the book.

Perhaps not, but is this the first mention of the term 'climate change' in a novel? Page 800 in my copy.

I really enjoyed this book by James A Michener, as I have enjoyed everything else he has written. He has a way of writing that just drags you into a story and keeps you hooked there. They are always very well researched, you get the feeling he is confident in all aspects of his story.
six young people from different parts of the world Britta, from dark brooding Norway, Joe from America, Yigal from Isreal, Cato from America , Monica from Englad and Gretchen from America, all their own individual reasons for leaving their homes and travelling, all of them escaping though from things they cannot or have no wish to understand. They are trying to "find themselves".
They all come together in Torremilinos in a bar called The Alamo, which is show more where their adventures start. They drift around Spain, the Algarve, Pamplona, Mocambique experiencing new things and end up in Marrakech, where tagedy stikes the group.
I found myself shouting at them in my head because whilst they were bumming around doing dreadful things to their minds and bodies, you weren't quite sure if they would find themselves or just make a whole mess up of their lives!!
I think if I had read this book 30 years ago I would have thought about it in such a different light. It is a young persons book, as this is what they will do for ever more, try and change things for the better and never really suceeding in understand what it is they want. show less

This book was like a candy store when I first read it in the seventies. The idea of such of free and open world and lifestyle was very enticing. Even though the author was quite critical of the lifestyles, you could also see how sympathetic he was to what was happening. For young impressionable minds during that period, this book was liberating.