Caribbean

Another wonderful Michener novel which spans time from the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean to the 1980's. I read this over a span of time as the chapters do not seem as tightly bound as some of the other novels. Each chapter is set in a different island. There are big names such as Columbus, but most of the characters are those that experienced the beauty and horrors of the islands. African slaves were first brought to the islands by the British in approximately the 1500's as sugar became a major product. The sugar trade and the sugar fields were places of horror as slaves were starved, whipped, and replaced by new shiploads of peoples brought from Africa.

Much of the book involves the struggle between the Spanish who first show more discovered the islands, the British who sent many of their lesser nobility to the islands to rule, and the French. There are stories of sea battles, privacy, diplomatic encounters, and personal love stories. Race plays a major role in almost all of the chapters. The whites honestly believed the black race to be inferior, felt no pain, and were treated as such. As more and more children were born of mixed race, there developed another class of biracial people. At all times, the white race was superior, the mixed races depended on the lightness of their skin, and the blacks were at the bottom and were treated as such. This is a honest look at race relations in the islands but one that had a definite affect on the US.

One of the later chapters involves an East Indian man who showed exceptional talent and was sent to the states to study. He can stay only as long as he is a student but not wanting to return, he falls into a scam of marriage to a woman in order to stay. Very interesting look at a situation known to happen.

Loved almost every chapter of this book. Michener has such a way of taking the bones of history and adding characters who explain the history much better than "just the facts" as the facts are always complicated. show less

James Michener is my go to author when I want to learn the in depth history of an area. The Caribbean was at the top of my list because of my impending move to Panamá. This book is definitely being added to my Panamá Book List!

James has a formula that totally works for me. He starts as far back as he can, in this case with the wonderful Arawak indigenous tribe, and weaves stories out of non-fiction facts and fictional stories. Each (long) chapter is vignette covering a particular time frame, which is nice because if one is boring, it won't be long until you're reading something quite different!

I am no longer naïve about the history of the Caribbean. Wow, so incredibly tumultuous and heartbreaking for huge portions of the population. show more It will definitely help me have a deeper understanding of the mindset and opinions of local Panamanians (and other Caribbean locals)—and LOTS more empathy. show less

Kind of hit or miss with some of the tales of the Caribbean. It did not feel like we spend enough time with any of the characters to get a good enough feel for them. I did appreciate learning a bit more about the history of the nations and the linkages to piracy and then exploitative agricultural practices later on. I was less concerned about Michener’s invention of the island All Saints than some readers.

I used to live in Grenada, West Indies. I had mixed feelings about the book. It was great to have the panorama view of the West Indies complex history. But his coverage of the small islands was to create a fictional island bundled up with aspects of all of them. As the book went up to the 1990s, the omission of America’s invasion of Grenada was negligent. Nor did he look at the impact of UK’s abolition of slavery trade in 1807 and slavery itself in the British colonies in 1833 and this is something that must be of interest to historians.

My first Michener. I learned a huge amount about the Caribbean, but the characters and characterizations were dry, and I didn’t find myself caring about any of them. I only stuck with it for the history lesson.

This wasn't as captivating as my favorites by him, but it does as well at conveying the essence of the region and its roots in mercantile-era history. I especially enjoyed the tragic story in his chapter about Guadeloupe.

Very good book. I read this while living in the Caribbean. Even if I hadn't known the history of the region, it is a great novel. The book is made of chapters, each corresponding to a different ages. It starts with times before European colonizers and works its way up to present day. Each chapter has great characters and introduces you to a different culture that influenced the Caribbean (Native-Americans, Spanish, French, English, Danish, American...). Each chapter is so interesting that they could all be turned into their own full-length book. A long book but well worth the time investment.