Other people wrote his books.Īt the time, I already had some evidence to form a low opinion of him. It was conventional wisdom that Michener was a hack, a producer of word-pabulum - and besides, he wasn’t even a real writer at all, at least not anymore. You didn’t hear James Michener’s name spoken among literary sorts without a sneer attached. But now that we are older, wiser, and don’t give a damn what our professors or literary betters think, I believe you’ll discover a hell of a writer in Michener, well worth reading even if his memory does seem to be fading from the culture.īack when I was in college, Michener was at the top of the publishing mountain - and at the bottom of his reputation among the smart set. You, like me, may have been put off from reading Michener before by bad advice. It’s odd, but not having to either buy reprint editions or crack open dusty and crumbling paperbacks made reading Michener seem new to me, as if I were encountering contemporary books instead of novels that are thirty to forty years old.

I spent many pleasurable hours listening to the audiobook versions of the books when I wasn’t reading words on a page. In the process, I discovered an American master I never suspected existed. I spent an entire year reading through the novels of James Michener, especially the “saga” novels of the 1970s and 80s.

James michener centennial