original story at an inexpensive price

books:


	• Tales of the South Pacific James A. Michener Reader's Digest Association, 1995 - 359 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Almost Like Being There

James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" is one
of those unforgettable books that take you into the heart of
a time and place and make you really feel it.

Written during the early dark days of the Pacific War against
the Empire of Japan (1942), it follows the adventures of
a U.S. Navy liaison man as he island-hops around American bases
besieged by the twin perils of jungle rot and marauding
enemy planes. Interesting characters abound, playing out their
roles in the great drama of war and history.

It's a winner.

for more information click here

Some enchanted evenings

My first Michener novel.

I was listening to an NPR show talking about the unexpected hit that the current (2008) Broadway revival of South Pacific has been. In the show they started talking about this book, the inspiration for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. I was just finishing a book and this sparked my interest. I also heard it won a Pulitzer Prize, so I went out and picked it up.

I had never read anything by the fabled James Michener before, but this (his first book) seems a far cry from the bricks of historical fiction that would later make his name. Instead, Tales of the South Pacific is an interconnected series of short stories detailing the lives of the Naval men and women serving in the South Pacific. It covers the inactive period between the battle of Coral Sea (1942) though the landing on Kuralei (1944).

Though the main characters are in the Navy, the stories that make up the book are almost entirely land based and are about the day to day life on the islands rather than details of battle. James Michener has a real storyteller's knack for pacing and characterization. His dialog however felt very stiff and awkward. His characters actions and reactions seemed believable enough, but reading his characters speech reminded me of watching a movie from the early forties.

A couple of times he or his narrators would wax philosophic and it would come off pretty clumsy. On the other hand he was very good when he would show rather than tell about the long days of boredom or the difficulty of understanding a different culture. The best parts of the book were the bits dealing with soldiers from little Midwest towns that were in awe of the beauty of a place they'd never even heard of before the war, or showing the soldiers trying to deal with the natives they shared the islands with.

I was very put off by the racist attitude presented in the book, not by the characters but by the narrator. I understand that this is the forties and these attitudes were prevalent and would have accepted it, but the two most famous stories in this book (Our Heroine and Fo' Dolla') are about accepting other cultures. Elsewhere in the book however black soldiers or natives were portrayed in very stereo-typed or derogatory ways. I guess it seemed like Mr. Michener wasn't following his own advice.

Also, I realize that this was written just after the war, but I kept wishing that he would have been a little more descriptive of the various planes that were such an important of the stories. He would mention PBYs or F6Fs and not tell you what those were.

You are probably thinking that most of the negatives I've mentioned are unfair or due to the time the book was written. I'd suggest you check out The Caine Mutiny which was written around the same time and has none of these problems.

In the end, the book was interesting and I did enjoy it, but for me it wasn't a classic.

for more information click here

A good read, but marred by prejudice

The book is a good read, I quite like the format of a collection of 18 loosely related stories, each independent in its own right, but some characters reappear. This format allows one to read more leisurely and skip some if one wishes.

The writing is pretty good, with lively conversations, vivid description of the Pacific islands, and sometime humorous delivery. Literarilly I can only find two blemishes: 1. the excessive use of exclamation marks; 2. the use of military acronyms without explanations. But overall the writing is crisp, it is hard to believe it was written more than 60 years ago, it really feels very contemporary (except for the following aspect, see below). It is also hard to believe this was the author's first novel, it is quite sophisticated.

But what marred the book is the prevalent prejudice throughout the book. The other races (other than white), especially the native Pacific Island, are stupid, lazy, devious and indolent under Mr. Michener's pen. Even considering the time and circumstances, these things are not easy for one to gloss over. For this reason I cannot give it more than 3 stars.

for more information click here

original story at an inexpensive price

I loved the movie and wanted to read the book. It answered my questions.

Dreaming of the South Pacific...

I admit I had very little idea what this book was about when I bought it, but it seemed like something I should read while on vacation in the South Pacific last fall. It wasn't quite the island paradise novel that I thought it would be - it really is a book about WWII, in which the islands of the South Pacific are characters, but despite not being what I thought I enjoyed it thoroughly and didn't put the book down until I was done. My reading experience was definitely enhanced by the view of the ocean that I had from my overwater hut in Bora Bora where I was when I read the book, but even if you aren't on vacation in some exotic locale, South Pacific is a classically entertaining novel well worth the read.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

"Truly one of the most remarkable books to come out of the war. Mr. Michener is a born story-teller."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Enter the exotic world of the South Pacific, meet the men and women caught up in the drama of a big war. The young Marine who falls madly in love with a beautiful Tonkinese girl. Nurse Nellie and her French planter, Emile De Becque. The soldiers, sailors, and nurses playing at war and waiting for love in a tropic paradise.

hot