Centennial

A typical Michener tale in scope, detail, and heft. To my tastes, it was pretty good for about the first 700 pages and then it just seemed to come apart. There were too many characters, too many families, too many plots and subplots, and too many tangential deep dives into minutia of the region and time. Honestly ... I'm interested in sugar beets for only about 10 pages if I'm feeling patient. 80 pages? Not really.

There's no doubt that writing about something as big and grand and as mythologized as The American West is an enormous undertaking. It is way bigger than the sum of the events that happened or the people who lived there. Michener's approach at the start was to follow a couple of families and that worked -- we could see the show more world unfolding in their actions and dialogue. We didn't need the narrator to step in and tell us what was important. But then Michener jumped from people to topics and the narrator became the dominant voice. Cattle drives, water, agriculture, ranching, sheep, and the railroad ... and each topic required another 8-10 characters who played their bit parts and then get thrown into the mix with all the other characters floating around. After a while the story just becomes a bunch of stuff that happened to a bunch of people that the narrator tells us is important.

Based on the average rating for this book, I suppose people like it. NBC made a miniseries out of it. But don't think that is has the magic that Chesapeake or Alaska had. show less

A runaway best seller, Michener's Centennial was written as a tribute to America's bicentennial celebration. The book is about a fictitious town of the same name in Colorado. The town is not nestled in the majestic Rockies, as one might expect, but instead is located out on the vast, open, treeless, windswept plains that run down from the eastern slopes of the mountains. It is here that Michener gives the reader a comprehensive history of the area, from the formation of the land and its rivers, to its prehistoric inhabitants, to its early settlers, to its subsequent clash of various cultures. The plains Indians, fur trappers, pioneer settlers, soldiers, ranchers, dry land and irrigation farmers, and the hearty descendants of these show more diverse groups--all are depicted vividly and weaved into an engrossing story by an author with a keen eye for detail. Each chapter is a mini-novel in itself dealing with a specific time period. Like all of Michener's historical fiction novels, Michener lived in the actual town of Centennial, Colorado, for a year or more to do the extensive research for his story. Michener's writing style is one that is unique to him. Readers seem to either love his vivid and prolific prose, or they are overwhelmed by the great attention to detail that is Michener. I love his writing and have read virtually all his novels. If you have never read a novel by Michener, this is the one to start with to see if you like his writing style. Chances are you will become a life-long fan of the man who has become one of my favorite authors. show less

as always, i love his historical detail and the vast amount of information he provides. he chose a weird way to do it in this book, though, and it detracted because it was so undeveloped and obviously a tool to get his research across. the middle of this book was extremely compelling to me; the rest less so. although i do, of course, love his discourse on how we're destroying the world, and i wept for what seemed like days when reading about what i wish was the blackest blight in american history (but i think there's unfortunately a lot to choose from) - the government's treatment of the native americans.

A novel about Colorado and a large book in every sense of the word, Centennial is one of Michener's most successful outings. It boasts the humongous timeline we've come to expect from him, but the fiction itself rests on a solid foundation of fascinating historical facts. Exposition abounds, of course, but in this case it's well balanced against the human stories.

Michener starts with a somewhat didactic geology lesson and gamely presents us with the personal trials and tribulations of dinosaurs and early mammals, followed by.. um, beavers? Well, beavers can have rich and emotional inner lives, too. Heck, you can tell the man even did massive research into beavers. This is a very dedicated writer, folks.

Anyway, the human part of the book show more starts with the first inhabitants of the area, the Arapaho, and their initial encounter with whites. This portion has some of the most interesting characters, the Arapaho chief Lame Beaver and the intrepid French trader Pasqinel. These people are so colorful they must surely be based on real historical figures.

There's a particularly disturbing massacre about a third of the way through the novel (basically the Sand Creek Massacre). Sad that so little of the horrific details of this event had to be made up by the author. (Truth is often worse than any nightmare one can dream up.)

An impressive pageant of characters wander in and out the pages of this book; it'd be a slog to go through them all. You have your usual black hats and white hats, a generous amount of gray characters, and a generous sprinkling of under-developed walk on parts. It's an engrossing and informative read, not high literature, but by Michener standards pretty good. show less

A long investment of time but so worth it. One of Michener's masterpieces. Rich with American history, rich characterization, complex plotting. A fascinating story with fictional and true life characters interacting. A great read. Worth the investment in every way.

I like these things that Mr. Michener does with history and place. Not as good for me as "The Source", but I sure loved reading it - and then reading John Kings book "In Search of Centennial" which chronicled it's research and production.

Michener is a good writer, but in picking up his books it is important to ask "am I in the mood for a book from the beginning of time?" at page 134 he has only just gotten to humans. However, this strategy for writing made me think about evolution, the difference between humans and animals and survival. In writing historical fiction, Michener portrays the sense of a place, and how we came to be where we are today. He tells a good story, but he also depicts unhappy truths without romantisizing them.