On several occasions he writes from an animal’s perspective, and manages to not make that seem weird. I was completely captivated by the characters he created, from the men and women of the native people to the animals who survived next to them.
It is quite an accomplishment to write an 800+ page novel that never feels too long, but I was definitely left wanting more. He is able to weave the fact and the fiction together so seamlessly that I was never aware of which was which. Michener must have done an enormous amount of research before writing this novel, and in the front of the book he details, section by section, which characters and situations are historical fact, and which are author inventions to further the action of the novel. It is very much a novel, with excitement brimming on each page. It’s hard to describe his style of writing, because it is very detailed, almost in a textbook sort of way, but it never feels like reading a dry history book.
Next, he introduces us to the animals that would have inhabited the region before humans moved onto the scene. Michener literally traces the entire history of Alaska – his first chapter deals with the crashing together of plates that formed the region into its mountainous terrain. It’s almost hard to put into words my reaction to such a vast novel. *grin* This is the first, loaned by my Grandpa. I was given a stack of books by my relatives to read and review – they like knowing they are contributing to my reading addiction. A spellbinding portrait of a human community struggling to establish its place in the world, Alaska traces a bold and majestic history of the enduring spirit of a land and its people. The exciting high points of Alaska’s story, from its brutal prehistory, through the nineteenth century and the American acquisition, to its modern status as America’s thriving forty-ninth state, are brought vividly to life in this remarkable novel: the gold rush the tremendous growth and exploitation of the salmon industry the discovery of oil and its social and economic consequences the difficult construction of the Alcan Highway, which made possible the defense of the territory in World War II. Michener guides us across Alaska’s fierce terrain, from the long-forgotten past to the bustling technological present, as his characters struggle for survival.
In this sweeping epic of the northernmost American frontier, James A.
0 kommentar(er)
