Customer Reviews

Alaska

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Author James A. Michener has conceived and written an epic novel about the land we now know as Alaska. Using his characteristic writing style of starting at the very beginning (in this case, with native people living on the coastland we now know of as Eastern Russia) and then developing the story generation after generation through his rich and interesting characters, Michener tells the complete story of Alaska. The reader learns how Alaska was first settled, what animals first roamed its lands, what the native Inuit people were like in their unique culture and how they survived in the harsh environment, how the Americans bought the land from Russia, how the gold rush happened and what it was like for gold prospectors in the unforgiving winderness, and finally, it tells the story of the multi-ethnic peoples of Alaska, and this perhaps is Michener's strength in story-telling. Michener, as he has done in other novels, again proves his writing has a prophetic nature to it, as the last chapter details an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean that sends a Tsunami wall of water to assault the shore or Alaska, eerily reminiscient of the tsunami that devastated Sri Lanka recently.

Yes, the novel is long - over 1,000 pages, but it is still an absorbing page-turner. Each chapter is a mini-novel in itself and tells the story of a particular generation of people in Alaska's development. Michener has a knack of creating and developing characters that are both interesting and believable and this is his greatest strength as a writer. The reader comes to care about these fictious charcters as though they are living breathing realities, and in a sense, the charcters are "real", as Michener's painstaking research enabled him to form his charcters based on historical personages.

"Alaska" is a marvelous book, and for those that are into long sweeping novels, this is a book for you. It seems that Michener's writing style either fascinates or tries the patience of his readers. Michener goes into great detail in explaining the lives of his characters and some readers are impatient with his extensive prose and are apt to put his books down before finishing them. I happen to love his writing style and appreciate the detail, as it paints vivid word pictures in my mind. Michener is one of my favorite authors, for each of his books takes me to a particular place or culture, and it is as though I am actually viewing that culture, its people, and the land first-hand. I have learned a wealth of information about distant lands thanks to the writing of James A. Michener. These are places I may never visit in my life, but thanks to Michener, it is as though I have been there through his writing.

I most certainly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the land and people of Alaska, or to one who is contemplating a trip to Alaska (the bok makes compelling reading even if you have no intention of going to Alaska!). Once you read Michener's "Alaska", you will have a tremendous appreciation for the hardships that the settlers endured to "tame" this great land. I guarantee you will always remember "Alaska" for the rest of your life.

I highly recommend this book!

Jim "Konedog" Koenig

This is the first "thick" book I ever finished. Having put-it-down-itis, I avoided books of great magnitude. Not so in this case. I had attempted to read "Chesapeake" & very much enjoyed the first ten chapters. I liked Michener's style: taking a specific geographic area and tell it's story through individual people occupying it's space, combining fiction with reality. He captured the mystique Alaska holds from the forming of the land masses to the present day.

He writes of woolly mammoths being hunted by early man through the mammoths' eyes, and then the following chapter through the perspective of the hunters. Michener conveys the struggle of survival from both sides with great emotion. He follows the speculative history of early nomadic tribes following their food supply across the Bering Strait.

Mr. Michener then reveals early voyages from people such as Captain Cook and how they survived harsh winters while their ships were frozen in the Alaskan seas.

Then Russian explorers establish military forts and desire to "save the barbaric savages" they discover when they arrive. Following are the bloody battles they fought with them.

The book unfolds further with Seward's Folly and the Gold Rush and of how the United States government persuaded some of its more adventuresome citizens into creating a new life in the last American frontier. This book also reveals the continuing struggle between the "progress" of corporations using Alaska's natural resources such as fish and oil and how it affects the Native inhabitants and how companies in Seattle "the gateway to Alaska" took advantage of it's close proximity at the expense of the Alaskan people.

The late Mr. Michener writes through the unique perspectives of the characters he creates and borrows from history. If I continue, this will be as long as the book!

I first read Michener's Alaska while visiting my brother in Alaska in 1989, in all I spent 6 weeks there. I have since read it several more times despite its length. I do this because it is a very good book and because its vivid scenery reminds me of one of the most majestic places I have ever visited.

If you are not familiar with Michener's style he tells the tale of a particular area from its geologic formation up to modern times. In this he starts his tale and weaves it through the lives of subsequent and remotely related characters.

With Alaska, Michener starts with some Mastodans and then works it through the first migrants coming over the ice bridge. From there he covers Russian colonization, the gold rush, and onto modern times.

Each generation has its own intricacies and its own stories. All of these stories are highly interesting and blend well together.

My only problem with Michener is that he is more interested in the story than the history. With this he takes too many liberties in adapting actual events to fit his circumstances. It is fun to read but it ends there. Do not feel you have gained any great historical insights from his readings.

I purchased "Alaska" by Michener to gain insight into the history and culture of this land. This was in preparation for my family's Alaksan cruise. The book fulfilled that purpose above and beyond. But, in addition, I found myself immersed in the story of this land and its people which spanned thousands of years up to present day. I have not read a book recently where I found myself attached to the characters as I did in "Alaska". I was truly sorry when the book came to an end.

So I picked up this book because my father-in-law loves Michener and we were fortunate enough to take an Alaskan cruise this summer. You see the book everywhere in Alaska, and I'm a fan of historical fiction.

For over 1000 pages, this book is a bit of a dissapointment. When you're finished, you feel as though you know a good deal about our largest state. This was great, but the drawback is that you don't feel like the story has an coherency. To be fair to the author, this would be very difficult to do when attempting to cover the history of a region starting with the dawn of history. How can a writer connect the life of a primitive Eskimo to a modern day one? Perhaps it would have been more manageable to focus on one period of history and tell the story well.

The other questionable aspect of this book is the way in which the author seems to "cram" in as many unique elements of Alaskan life and history as possible. For example, no book about Alaska would be complete without a reference to the Iditerod. Michener rushes this element into the book at the very end with little connection to the rest of the story.

All in all, if you'd like a general overview of the region, this would be a good choice. But if you're looking for a well crafted story, you might want to avoid this one.

This book is among my favorites. I have read most or many of his books twice and always find them to be entertaining and educational. I keep a copy of Hawaii, Alaska, and Texas near at hand.

This is a nice 850 page historical novel that gives a very detailed picture of the evolution of a great state. Alaska is one of the last places to have a very clean and unspoiled environment where fish can still be seen to just jump out of the ocean.

Michener's books use a common plot formula that starts out by telling a story that reflects and utilizes the actual historical developments and time lines and people of a region. He starts back with the early native peoples that came from Asia. He adds in settlers, bush pilots, fisherman, salmon canning factories, business people, etc. He adds in more characters and phases out others - it is all fiction - as the dates move forward to current times (mid 20th century).

When I decided to review this book I was not certain if people were still interested in buying this book but I was pleased to see that there is still interest at Amazon.com in buying and reading this great story.

After this read this book I visited Alaska. If you have the resources I recommend a fishing trip to Alaska assuming that you like fishing - or just a wilderness trip. Alaska is cool even in the summers, but the clear waters, mountains and all the unspoiled wilderness and animals make it a special place. If you cannot go, then read this book. If you can go, read this first.

Good read and a good gift.

As always with Michener, the description of the locale and people is outstanding. This book takes you from the very beginning of the territory of Alaska to the present time. I was very interested in the Russians who settled in Alaska and the environmental issues that were raised even then. This is a long book, typically Michener, but it is divided into sections that allow you to start and stop (if you are able) at your convenience. I like Michener's works because I always learn something, as well as enjoying a wonderful story. You won't be disappointed.

Written in 1998, Alaska is true to James Michener's mode of sweeping epic, historical facts and memorable characters. I personally love books about Alaska and because of its length, I purposely took my time reading it, looking forward each evening to opening the pages and losing myself once more in this special world.

This is the story of Alaska in all its glory. From the anthropological details of early animals and human beings, right up to the late 1980s, the main focus is on the last few hundred years. There are the early explorers who were awed by its majesty. There were the first Russian settlements with strong and courageous people. There was the gold rush. And the beginnings of the salmon industry. The horrors of colonialism. The lawlessness. The quest for statehood. And the politics.

Most of all though, it is the story of a place. And because the timeline of the book spans hundreds of years, the characters are interesting but somewhat one-dimensional. We follow their family lines, but they come and go, leaving legacies for future generations but never really being developed to their fullest.

I loved the book for what it was though, a background to all the other books I've been reading about Alaska lately. Thankfully, the author informed the reader in a chapter by chapter prologue exactly what was based on fact and what was truly fiction. Yes, someone did once ride a bike from Dawson to Nome in the dead of winter. And yes, some of the deeds of the early sea captains were taken from actual records.

Again, because the book covers many centuries, there is a limit to how deeply he could go into a theme. For example, I would have liked more about the different native peoples. It's impossible to do it all. But James Michener sure did try.

I do feel that this book is a worthy read and I do recommend it. Give yourself time though to let yourself be swept into this wonderful story of Alaska. There's certainly a lot to learn.

The Best!!! A compelling, brilliantly woven story that explains how Alaska evolved from the days of the mastodons to its current environmental and social justice issues. The BIG PICTURE as only Michener can display it. This book explains the ethnic, geological, zoological, and political roots of *all* Alaska's current predicaments. Very educational and a fabulous can't-put-it-down read into the bargain. If you can only read one book about Alaska, this is the one!

Mr. Michener is known for his lengthy descriptions, but if you stick with it, you will be rewarded with a great deal of historical knowledge about Alaska. I have also read "Journey" so I know more about Alaska than perhaps I ever cared to know. Michener really brings his writing talents to the table in the final chapter about modern Alaska. The basic issue in the final chapter is the conflict between modern culture and traditional culture. Kendra, a teacher of Eskimos from Utah, ends up having to make a marriage choice between an idealistic lawyer who supports Alaska's traditional or subsistence cultures, Jeb Keeler, and the grandson of a Seattle business executive who works as a scientific worker on an iceberg and ran
in the
Iditarod dogsled race, Rick Venn. Perhaps surprisingly, she chooses Venn, mostly because of his noble behavior in the dogsled race, when he sacrifices his chance to win to aid a fallen comrade.
The third main character in the final chapter is Poley Markham, also a lawyer from Phoenix, who attempts to take advantage of the numerous legal problems that arise in connexion with the Alaska Native Settlements Act,making himself instantly wealthy. He is on the side of modernism,unlike Jeb, and with his rather macho personality has a strong side- interest in hunting which he shares with Jeb, and which is the final chapter's main subplot(hunting the"The Alaskan Big Eight"). There are others --the scientific expert on tsunamis is an important one. The ethical questions Kendra must face in connection with her Eskimo students are touching and are well developed. Michener occasionally uses tragedy if it serves his purposes, as it does here. A suicide and an unexpected death are symptoms revealing many of the problems of traditional cultures.
We are also repeatedly told how and why everything is more expensive in Alaska, due to the Jones Act of 1920. The lawyer Jeb Wheeler is finally killed by a tsunami in the climax of the book, perhaps also revealing Michener's views of liberal lawyers.
All chapters are similarly developed so that by the end one gets a real feeling for Alaska's traditional cultures, and a lot
more too. On the scientific side, we get geology, anthropology, oceanography, biology, including getting inside the minds of mammoths and salmon. We are introduced to a great deal of Russian colonial history in the early chapters as it relates to Alaska;to a great deal of seafaring lore including the hunt for sea otter and seal pelts, and to the destruction of the Eskimo's way of life by alcoholism , courtesy of an unscrupulous sea captain. We go on several whale hunts and are given details about them and the harpoons. By the time the Americans enter the picture, we are ready for the poor management; all the swindlers connected with the Gold Rush, which gets a thorough treatment, focusing on the Klondike and on Nome. Michener carries the characters from this period, and their progeny, through to the end of the book. There is then a long chapter on the salmon industry which tells us how the industry unscrupulously took advantage of the Jones Act of 1920, which puts all economic power in the hands of Seattle businessmen at the expense of native Alaskans. We are introduced to Sam Bigears of the Tlingit tribe, his daughter Nancy, and to Ah Ting, the Chinese worker who can repair machines but who is ultimately replaced by machines. In the next-to-last chapter we learn of the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian islands during World War II and the building of the Alcan Highway, as well as to the adventures of Leroy Flatch, the "bush pilot". There are numerous other sub-plots, and we also get a real feel both for Alaska's oceans, glaciers, icebergs, mountains, vocanoes, and earthquakes.