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Summary: Must Read
Review: I'm an avid Michener fan. Although this wasn't his best book, it is still one of the best. Even though the book was written over 50 years ago it is still fresh and has stood the test of time. This is one of those books where you won't realize how much you loved it until you finish it.
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Summary: Humanizes WWII
Review: In this Pulitzer prize winning book James Michener brings us to a beautiful place and puts us into the lives of the people who were in this part of the world during World War II. The book is a collection of short stories that are sometimes interconnected. All in all I am glad that I read this book, but for me it was not one of Micheners best works, however it is still fantastic. I guess I am more of a fan of the epic historical novel of his like "The Source" and "Centennial"
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Summary: Spend an enchanted evening in the South Pacific
Review: Its all here - fantastic locations, gripping stories love, death, war, bigots and racists, hope, waiting waiting waiting on desolate coral atols, disease, cowards and heros, an ancient avenue of noble pines cut down for a runway, a mountain moved in a week, wild tribes, brutal nature, life lived and lost. Michener wrote the book before being assigned the job described by the narrator. Read the book and rent the video SOUTH PACIFIC for fantasic songs and romance (I especially like the way they slip the red filter over the lense for each song - glorious 50's color). Like all good books this is about much more than is subject
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Summary: A helluva musical makes for a story of disconnects...
Review: James Michener's first fictitious creation, "Tales of the South Pacific" is difficult to read, having seen the way Rodgers and Hammerstein portrayed it in the 1950's. In fact, seeing the Hollywood musical may have downright ruined what could have been an interesting book to read. The story is as its title suggests. It is a collection of somewhat disconnected tales of soldiers who waited and waited and waited for something to occur in the South Pacific during World War II. A few well-chosen and colorful characters stand out in the islands as their antics and daredevil navy and aviation heroics tie all of those previously mentioned disconnects together by the end of the book. Bali Hai still calls though, dear reader. If thoughts of the musical interrupt your reading, recall that it is perfectly allright to stop your reading and sing the obligatory chorus or two that will help you to enjoy the story.
Rating:
Summary: A helluva musical makes for a story of disconnects...
Review: James Michener's first fictitious creation, "Tales of the South Pacific" is difficult to read, having seen the way Rodgers and Hammerstein portrayed it in the 1950's. In fact, seeing the Hollywood musical may have downright ruined what could have been an interesting book to read. The story is as its title suggests. It is a collection of somewhat disconnected tales of soldiers who waited and waited and waited for something to occur in the South Pacific during World War II. A few well-chosen and colorful characters stand out in the islands as their antics and daredevil navy and aviation heroics tie all of those previously mentioned disconnects together by the end of the book. Bali Hai still calls though, dear reader. If thoughts of the musical interrupt your reading, recall that it is perfectly allright to stop your reading and sing the obligatory chorus or two that will help you to enjoy the story.
Rating:
Summary: Long, tedious, yet worth it.
Review: Liquor, love, babes, war, ships, planes, etc.! You name it and Michener included it somewhere in his book. Tales of the South Pacific is a book that is written to make many different points about human nature and war. Many of the characters whom the reader is made to sympathize with show the aspects of human life. These characters are also brought to the piont that the only thing they will ever have is what they had doubted the entire war... heroism. These short stories are written in a heavy style that becomes too much work to read sometimes. Even so, the reader is brought along by wondering about the welfare of the special character that they feel close to. This writing is best if one can take brakes through-out the book to let their mind catch up with the story. This book was interesting, yet overall the way in which the characters are represented made the book come alive with emotions.
Rating: 
Summary: Sub par for Michener
Review: Maybe it was because he was so young when he wrote it or maybe it was because it was his first published novel, but I thought this fell short of the kind of work I have come to expect from James. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed such behemoths as Texas, Chesapeake and Caribbean, I was expecting great things from this book, especially since it won the Pulitzer. I found that the book didn't flow very well and the character's (aside from Bloody Mary) were not very well developed. Being a fan of the historical epics, I find that Michener doesn't really hit his stride until he wrote Hawaii in 1959. Tales was written in 1947. If you like Michener for his history, this book will disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: Underrated Masterwork
Review: The omission of this work from the academic canon is another comment on the discriminatory but hardly discriminating state of literary studies today. Michener is far more than a captivating storyteller, collector of colorful characters, painter of vivid natural imagery, and documentor of the orchestrations of world warfare. Each of the "tales" comprising his carefully-constructed epic narrative is at once thematically and stylistically related to the other smaller narratives and at the same time artistically whole in itself. Attention to two examples will have to suffice: "Our Heroine," the story of Nellie Forbush, is a shocking expose of racism, delivering a blow that causes the reader to reel as much as comparable explosive moments in Flannery O'Connor. When the character learns that her fiance's former lover is dead and rejoices not because a rival has been removed but because a black person has been eliminated, Nellie would seem to be beyond the redemption experienced even by O'Connor's most degenerate souls. But in an earlier story about "the Remittance Man" Michener's narrator has constructed a definition of heroism, allowing us to see how Nellie's change of heart qualifies her for inclusion. And the famous "Bali Hai" chapter, far from an escapist love story, is at once romantic tragedy in the tradition of "Madame Butterfly" and tragicomedy in its portrayal of accessory characters who recall the nurse and friar in "Romeo and Juliet" and Pandarus in Chaucer's and Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida." And once again the narrative definition of the "heroic" allows us to see the tragedy play out not merely as a tale of star-crossed lovers but as a drama of necessary choices and their painful consequences. Joe Cable's venture into the Dionysian produces self-discovery because ultimately it becomes a "shared discourse" with his dark-skinned, native lover, who turns out to have a history of her own. Michener is as likely to locate the heroic away from the war as on island battlefields or the Pacific main, because his real subject is human nature and the courage to live in the face of obstacles both natural and human. To their credit, Rodgers and Hammerstein detected (and partially, if unevenly, captured) the strength in Michener's novel: Each of us has a Bali Hai, and our failures to reach it can be traced as much to failures of courage as to the ironclad circumstances of existence.
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Summary: Witnessing the Pacific War
Review: This 1947 novel won a Pulitzer Prize and established Michener's reputation as a writer. This book preserves the manners and culture of America circa 1940, both in what he wrote and what he didn't write. Michener shows his artistry in his descriptions of the foliage, flowers, seas, lights, and the people. Michener served in the Navy during WW II, and wrote many other books over the next fifty years. In 1960 he ran for office as a JFK Democrat, in 1968 he was a delegate to the Democratic Convention pledged to RFK. These stories describe life on the islands of the South Pacific. "Coral Sea" tells of the Japanese invasion fleet that threatened New Zealand. The civilian population would flee to the hills, leaving the old men and boys to guard the beaches with picks and axes; they had no other weapons. "Mutiny" tells of Norfolk Island, the former prison that was inhabited by the descendants of the Mutineers on the Bounty. They had to cut down old pine trees to make an airport. "An Officer and a Gentleman" tells of the Ensign who had too much time on his hands. "The Cave" tells how they received information on Japanese activities until their coastwatcher was eliminated. "The Milk Run" tells of a rescue of a downed pilot. "Alligator" is about the planning and background for the attack on Kuralei in the coming months. "Dry Rot" tells of the skin diseases and other disorders from living on an island in the tropics. "Fo' Dolla'" subtly explains political economy, the effect of plentiful money on an isolated region, and the interaction of human emotions and power; all wrapped up in a colorful story. The Sea Bees made war souvenirs and grass skirts. "Passion" tells of a problem in censoring personal letters. "A Boar's Tooth" notes the religious ways of some island peoples. Can a pig be sacred? Is pain and suffering at the center of all religions? Was Michener an Agnostic? "Wine for the Mess at Segi" explains the travails of getting refreshments for Christmas. When the celebration ends, they learn they will hit the next beachhead. "The Airstrip at Konora" tells about capturing an enemy-held island and creating a 6,000-foot airstrip from coral. "Those Who Fraternize" tells about the French colonial planter's society, and their relations with the Navy. "The Strike" describes the Kuralei operations, the Supply Depot, and the masses of goods needed for the invasion. Naval aviators loved baseball caps (did this create the fashion?) The author tells how important it could be to know an admiral! The big attack on the Depot came from a hurricane. An ammunition carrier anchored in the channel exploded; no one ever found out why. "Frisco" tells of the beginning of the assault on Kuralei. This is continued in "The Landing on Kuralei" which describes the landing on the beaches. This is the climax of the book. "A Cemetery at Hoga Point" wraps up the story. Who replaces the good men who died, asks Michener. We now know that the Japanese code was broken before Pearl Harbor, and our top military leaders knew of their plans. The emphasis was on first winning the war in Europe. The island hopping strategy was based on winning the war with minimal means. Japan lost the war with the Battle of Midway; they gambled on a quick victory, and lost.
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Summary: Life and Death, Love and Death, Beauty and Death
Review: This is a collection of 'tales' but together they are also linked as a complete story about a group of people that is preparing for a strike on an island held by the Japanese in the Pacific in WW II. The stories are about love, infedelity, loving native girls, pregnancy, marriage but also sadness, war, and ultimately death during the strike when some of the characters use their live, and not always in a flattering way. It is also a book describing the beauty of the islands in the South Pacific (Bali Ha'I) and the kindness of the native people. The story about the boar's tusks is amazing. One of the last stories is about all the men before they start fighting, they talk about their time in San Francisco, for most the last place they were in the US. It's a lot different than his others books, especially a lot thinner. It's magically written and sometimes heartbreaking.
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