This bullfight festival, the book's centerpiece, is interwoven with more interesting historical interludes in which Clay grapples with his own mixed heritage. His diverse ancestors include a 16th-century Mexican Indian queen who leads a women's revolt against human sacrifice, a Spanish scholar burned at the stake during the Inquisition, a Franciscan soldier-priest who accompanies Hernan Cortes to Mexico, a Virginia plantation proprietor who loses his wife and sons in the Civil War, and Clay's father, a silver-mine owner who participates in the Mexican Revolution. The colorful novel cuts a wide swath through history but doesn't catch fire as a personal story.

Michener began this novel 30 years ago, put it aside, and until recently left it unfinished. Perhaps that is why it is less formulaic than most of his mammoth excursions into the history of particular localities. Mexican-born Norman Clay, a journalist for a New York publication, returns to his natal city to report on the bullfights that highlight its annual festival. This year two matadors are joined in a rivalry that could end in death. Michener dramatizes the contradictions of contemporary Mexico not only in the conflicting styles and backgrounds of the matadors but also through the many duplicities inherent in bullfighting itself. The contradictions of 1961 Mexico are the result of its history, which is personified by Norman Clay, with his heritage of Pre-Columbian Amerindians, Spanish clerics and conquistadors, rancheros and mestizos, and even an unreconstructed Virginia rebel who found sanctuary in Mexico following our Civil War. Not the usual dutiful slog through the generations but a more carefully constructed interweaving of present and past, and one of Michener's finest efforts.

 Random House Publishing Group 0679416498 / 9780679416494
Hardcover AS NEW CONDITION New York 

Price: 29.21 USD

. Published at $25.00, this highly readable 484 page volume by one of the world's best-loved, bestselling novelists is set in the Palms, a florida retirement center. It follows several residents over the course of a year as their individual narratives -- humorous, moving, or sometimes triumphant -- unfold. ..Brodart Mylar protective book cover, library card at BACK of book, no other library markings!  New York, NY, U.S.A.: Random House, Incorporated, 1994 


Price: 15.75 USD

Here at last is the real James Michener, plainspoken, wise, and enormously sympathetic, a man who could truly say, "The world is my home." Michener, a writer who has enjoyed enormous popular esteem, remains an elusive personality; and his memoir, though frank and open on the surface, brings us no closer to him. The book is considerably entertaining, for his storytelling skills are ever at work, from his wartime years as a young officer in the South Pacific to his service on various Washington committees, his world travels and his life as a successful writer. But it strikes one as unlikely that the reticent, unfussy, modest man he is at pains to portray could have mustered the determination and stamina to create the remarkable career he has enjoyed. Michener likes to see himself as Mr. Average, suggesting perhaps that anyone could have done what he has with what he acknowledges are only moderate gifts.

But his accounts of his love of opera, painting and literature, and of the effort he made to educate himself in those arts, show him to be infinitely beyond the ordinary. His rigid standards of fiscal probity and his disdain for the limelight are also virtually unique among living authors, as is the generosity with which he has disposed of his considerable fortune to aid writers less well endowed. This is a frustrating book, then, because one wishes to know Michener better than he seems to know himself; but it will probably delight his many fans, even if it misleads them. This latest Michener title explores the personal history and intellectual, political, and philosophical landscape of the prolific 84-year-old writer and storyteller--terms he prefers to author. Michener offers selected events and influences that enabled a Pennsylvania boy of unknown parentage and no monetary advantages to mature into a man who has had various mundane and adventurous occupations and has written over 30 books, published since he was 40, that have brought him fame, national honors, and enough money to fund generously a range of charitable endeavors. The 14 topically arranged chapters are by turns didactic, candid, reflective, occasionally repetitive, and usually informative--although Michener maintains his stance of not discussing certain topics (e.g., his divorces). Thus, while this book represents a refreshing change from the current crop of tell-all memoirs, a scrim often seems to separate reader from writer. Nevertheless, given the continuing popularity of Michener's works despite any adverse commentary, this book is a recommended addition to the Michener collection in any library!

 Random House Publishing Group 0679401342 / 9780679401346
Hardcover Very Good Condition New York 

Price: 22.57 USD