Centennial

Rating:
Summary: Horribly dull book
Review: ...I gave this book 500 pages and that's enough to condem it.

Basically it's the history of Colorado. It starts out in a long explanation of everything that's going to come in the next dozen chapters and then it continues to tell about a dinosaur. The next couple of chapters write about settlers and Indians and none of them are all that exciting. Michener really captures the tedious lifestyle of the Plains settler with nothing to do and that's not a good thing.

By the time we get to the sheep farmers vs. the cattle ranchers I just had to put the book down and forget about it. I never came back to it and I don't mind.

Rating:
Summary: Centennial is a perfect blend of history and fiction.
Review:

Michener is a master at connecting all themes and events in Centennial. The weaving of the stories gives the reader a very full and well-rounded viewpoint about the history of the plains. The personification of animals makes their evolution and emigrations interesting. The only possible down-side of the novel is that, occasionally, Michener goes into so much detail that the point would be forgotten. Overall, Centenial is a fantastic novel that portrays the heroes and tradgedies of the plains and anyone that enjoys history and adventure would enjoy Centennial.

Rating:
Summary: Overlook the Final Chapter
Review: According to his style, Michener leads his reader through the fascinating and intricate histories of people, places, and creatures. With geography as the binding element, he parades the distinct players before the reader and displays in detail their lives and how they relate.

According to some, the amount of detail and the many divergences can be distacting to the reader and discourage recognition of the books object - a charge sometimes leveled at Walt Whitman and "Song of Myself." Like Whitman, Michener can sometimes seem to be merely "cataloging" people and events but it is this collage of disparate elements that define the composition.

Unlike Whitman, however, Michener renounces subtlety and devotes the final chapter to clarifying his object in writing the book. The reader, then, is not encouraged to ponder this on his own but rather to file the book on the shelf and enjoy the false contentment that he has gained an insight not previously held. If the reader stops here he loses the considerable investment of time expended in reading the book as, clearly, insight cannot be given but must be acquired intuitively. My recommendation, therefore, is to set the book aside for several days before reading the final chapter in order to enjoy this fine work without enduring the clubbing of chapter 14.

Rating:
Summary: The Creation of an Epic...
Review: cannot be taken lightly. James Michener is a highly detailed researcher. This can often put off a reader who does not give him a chance. He will often spend a couple of chapters establishing the very beginnings of an area. Here he does the same with the Platte River in Colorado. From a detailed account of the evolution of the period he spins an epic story of brave men and women establishing a new country from a harsh wilderness. If you do not give yourself a chance to become completely captured by the storytelling you will have done yourself a terrible injustice. This is a top ten book for anyone's list.

Rating:
Summary: History of Colorado in a series of short stories
Review: Centennial is a fictional town in Colorado, and Michener gives us a fictional but truth-based history of it, from prehistoric times to the recent past. He makes up characters and tells us interesting stories about them that illustrate the true history of Colorado.

One part of the book that I appreciated and enjoyed, but other reviewers apparently didn't, was the prehistoric part. Michener gave us, as his character, a dinosaur, or a beaver, or a little horse, and made the animal real for us for a few pages. In a cute and efficient use of his creativity, Michener brought back the subterranean cave of our beaver in prehistory and re-used it to stuff the dead body of a murder victim in one of his later episodes.

My favorite character in the book is the brave Indian named Lame Beaver. To me, the glory of Colorado's history is the time when the Arapaho Indians roamed the land and hunted buffalo.

Essentially this is a book of short stories tied together by geography and family ties. I'd have to say that this fact is the weakness of the book for me. There is something satisfying about following one character, and one storyline, from beginning to end. Take Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. At the beginning, the problem of the power ring is posed, the evil Sauron searching for his power ring to enable him to take over the world, the ring being found by a gentle harmless hobbit. At the end, this dilemma is solved, the ring dealt with, Sauron dealt with, story over. But in Michener's writing, you don't have a unifying character and plot. You have a series of changing characters and stories.

I'd much rather be immersed in the story of Lame Beaver and his battles than be burdened with the late Twentieth Century problems of pollution and smog. And there is something maudlin about getting drunk and melancholy over the past, as Michener's final character does in the last chapter. It is also what the book as a whole does.

Rating:
Summary: You'll never get out of your car!
Review: David Dukes brings this masterpiece to life! Ichener is usually too heavy for me, but Dukes gave the sory an excellent read. The characters came to life. He managed to speak in dialect without sounding comical. A great feat. I sat in my car to listen long after I arrived at my destination. I never knew how fascinating the western plains were. If you love history, and want to know how the west was really won, listen to Centennial.

Rating:
Summary: Number Two on the Michener Books
Review: Even though I am only 13 this is my second Michener and he lives up to the same quality as Hawaii. With a whole different setting this book is incredible. It has so many interesting plots such as the Arapaho and the Indian conflicts through history. If you like Michener you will love Centennial.

Rating:
Summary: Can't Put Down
Review: For me, other than The Source (see my review), this is Michener's other standout work. It presents a history of the settlement of western America in a context that we rarely appreciate.

Rating:
Summary: Can't Put Down
Review: For me, other than The Source (see my review), this is Michener's other standout work. It presents a history of the settlement of western America in a context that we rarely appreciate.

Rating:
Summary: Michener's masterwork
Review: For those familiar with Michener's distinct epic style, "Centennial" will hold no surprises. What "Centennial" does represent, however, is Michener's most successful execution of the genre he created. As the author's masterwork, "Centennial" is rivaled only by "Chesapeake" and "Alaska" in giving us an entertaining and exciting tour through the lives, deeds and heritages of several truly-American families.