Caribbean

Rating:
Summary: The book was mostly just boring.
Review: A few of the chapters were interesting. I liked the ones about slave revolts, but the rest were about people talking about war, the sugar interest, or other VERY boring things. I had to read this book for school and was supposed to take notes, but the book was so boring that I couldn't find the main idea of many chapters. The most interesting characters in the book didn't even exist and the historical ones were hardly even mentioned. For a historically acurate book, Caribbean is hardly acurate and I would not read this one just for fun.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, A must read for any Michener fan.
Review: A wonderful epic which spans over centuries detailing the marvelous history of the Caribbean. I loved it.

Rating:
Summary: Historical, but not too engaging
Review: A word of advice: When you are tempted to purchase one of Michener's books, take a look at when it was published. If it was after, say, 1985, just put the book back on the shelf. This great writer slowly sank into the sunset long before he ceased publishing. The works in his later years have the tone of a stodgy, old man. Take Caribbean, for instance. It was published in 1989. If you have little or no idea about Caribbean history, it will give you a pretty good rundown. But it is dry, passionless, bloodless. In the few places where Michener tries to convey a romance, it is laughable, pathetic and unbelievable. This book is good for history, but as a novel, it's a loser. I give it three stars. I am being very generous.

Rating:
Summary: 3 Michener's Read
Review: Although this isn's as good as the other two I've read (Hawaii and Cenntenial) it is still an incredible book. One thing is it skips the interesting but after a few pages boring beginning about the creation of the land. It opened my mind to great deal about the Caribbean. This is a great read and I recommend it to anyone who wants a good read about the Caribbean.

Rating:
Summary: Very good, except.............
Review: As usual, Michener gives great value for money when dealing with the historical elements of the story & sags badly in the final few chapters. Fascinating accounts of how each of the islands' destinies were inexorably determined by their particular dominant colonial force & culture. Didn't like, or see the need for, the complete invention of an island amidst the geographical realities. On balance, a good, rousing account. Well worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: a good read!
Review: Being from the Caribbean myself, I enjoyed how Michener attempted to thread the histories of the many diverse islands (one of which is my home)...however I agree with another reader that as soon as you get caught up in one section of the novel, we are taken to another island with another history...the novel will start with the true natives, the Tainos and Caribs...it will even take you to the backdrop of the Mayan civilization briefly..."the Spanish Lake" was my favorite part of the book....the battles between the Spaniards and the British are skillfully sketched, displaying the best and worst of both sides...the fistional island called "All Saints" in the book I found unnecesary...no reason to invent a history of an imaginary island in a book of this nature which is already struggling to cover the diversity that is the Caribbean...all in all, I enjoyed the book and the author held my interest...I would say it is a fun way to read history....I also recommend Galeano's "Memory of fire" a triology of the Americas....

Rating:
Summary: MIchener at his best
Review: Caribbean is a typical Michener book. He is the best when it comes to tell a story of a place, not of a person. Recently there has been some followers of this kind of books, like Edward Rutherfurd, who is a good author, but not like Michener.

Caribbean is a very long book, telling almost a millenium of history of one of the most enchanting places on Earth. Michener is able, through sixteen short stories, to narrate what happened on the various islands and main parts of the continent (like northern Colombia and eastern Mexico) since the time of the pre-colombian indians, passing through spanish domination, the attacks of english and french pirates and buccaneers, the abuse of the black people turned into slaves, till comunism in the form of Castro in Cuba. More, he is able to relate all what was happening in the Caribbean related to what was happening in the foremost countries in Europe, and the rising participation of the United States in the international scenario.

One thing I think it's really important when an author wishes to blend various real facts with his immagination efforts is to inform his readers what is fact and what is fiction, and in Caribbean Michener has a list of actual facts of each chapter and a bibliography of each subject for readers who want to learn further. This kind of attention to the reader is something we don't see too often, and everyone who likes a well written book should mourn Michener's passing away, as well as be glad he was so prolific and intense while writing.

This book is as colorful as the place of its name.

Grade 8.8/10

Rating:
Summary: Michener Shows The Caribbean In Its Entirety
Review: Caribbean is possibly one of Michener's best. He incorporates many interesting and fascinating facts, and is a master of description. Some parts are incomprehensible but mostly it is a fine example of literary wizardry.

Rating:
Summary: Better than "Mexico" and "Texas"
Review: Having found "Texas" and "Mexico" to be a little dry I was surprised by how much I enjoyed "Caribbean". The stories tied together towards the end of the book and ended with the most interesting tale of all...the Cuban exile who returned to his homeland for an interview with Castro. I appreciated the fact that Michener covered all the major parts of the Caribbean and each story focused on a new one.Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting most of the way
Review: I am a huge Michener fan, but in many of his books, the modern era towards the end of the book seems to sag. (Maybe it's my personal interest in 18th and 19th century history, I'll admit) The historical and fictional tales of the pirates and fighting between colonial powers at the beginning middle of the book was as good as historical fiction gets. But my interest started sagging later on, with the strange chapter of the fictional All-Saints island and the struggle of a Hindu to stay in the US to get citizenship. perhaps after 7 to 800 pages, the book get tiresome.