Customer Reviews

The Novel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"The Novel" is one of Michener's last works, and it must also be one of his shortest. Far less ambitious than most of his signature historical novels, it tells a story closer to home for him - both literally and figuratively. It centers on the two worlds he probably knew best: the Pennsylvania Dutch Country and the publishing industry.

The subject at hand is, ostensibly, an aging novelist and questions about the likely success of his anticipated new book. But Michener really just uses the story as a backdrop for four autobiographical sketches of the author and three people who figure in his life and career. Most of the story is not as suspenseful as some of the review quotes would have you believe, but the stories of the four characters and how they found themselves in their current situations are immediately engaging, tension or no tension. If nothing else, I definitely wanted to find out how they ended up.

Along the way, Michener throws in what I'm sure are several knowing jokes about the literary world in all its snobbery, notably a lengthy battle between two characters over the merits of Longfellow and a wonderfully awful "experimental" novel which the critics, predictably enough, love. If Michener himself weren't so highly regarded throughout his career, I would suspect him of intending many of the dialogue exchanges as digs at his critics. As it is, perhaps he meant comments like "there are novels critics like, and novels readers love" as a more generalzied swipe at the establishment he was so familiar with. The good news for us, of course, is that Michener was both. This is another great sample of his talent.

After having seen James Michener's thick books with single-word titles in my local library for years, I thought it was about time that I acquainted myself with this author. I'm not sure why I picked this book among the dozen or so that were on the shelf, and in hindsight I'm sure it wasn't his best work. Frankly, it was a rather strange book in many respects. Although I'm not altogether disappointed in the book, I doubt it is highly representative of Michener's work in general. This book struck me as an anomaly, even though I haven't read anything else by him to compare it against. Frankly, if all his books read this way, I doubt seriously he would have garnered much popular appeal.

In "The Novel," Michener gives us a fictitious novelist by the name of Marcus Yoder who is in the process of publishing his eighth and final novel after honing his craft over the better part of his lifetime. Yoder recounts in first person narrative format his slow and often uncertain rise from obscurity to worldwide fame writing novels about his own people, the Pennsylvania Dutch. Parts 2, 3, and 4 of the book provide a similar perspective of Yoder's work and career, but as told in their own words by his editor, a critic, and one of his readers, respectively. Michener also links the four main characters to one another through personal relationships, not just Yoder's novels. It all makes for an interesting read, but certainly nothing I could characterize as "riveting."

I don't know if Michener's over-arching purpose was to provide aspiring writers with an inside look at the publishing industry, but that's certainly part of what is imparted here. But I also got the strong sense that the main character in the book - Yoder - was modeled somewhat after Michener himself: an unpretentious fellow who is more concerned with giving his money away than in making more, and who writes because that is "what he does" rather than as a purely utilitarian way to put food on the table. Thus, I suspect that if someone wants to know about Michener the man, not Michener the novelist, this would be the appropriate book - short of a biography.

I suppose maybe I was expecting a book more along the lines of an Alex Haley novel like "Hotel," but Michener gives us something here that moves much slower, without only sparing amounts of drama and action. Nothing wrong with that, but just not what I was expecting. I don't think that it is a stretch to imagine that Michener has given us his own thoughts in this book about what a novel should be. I imagined not Marcus Yoder or the other characters in this book imparting their lifetime of wisdom about publishing, but Michener himself. Michener clearly gives us his imagination in this book, but I think that he has given us at least an equal measure of his own thoughts. The result was an education in the publishing industry without the drudgery or condescending voice of a tutorial.

Another thing worth mentioning: Michener was 84 years old when he wrote this book and it shows. Not in the way you might expect, however. He displays a razor sharp mind as well as a keen observation of people in general and the publishing industry in particular - there's simply no hint here of a man waning in his intellectual prowess. Instead, where I saw his years betraying themselves was in the dialog he gave his characters. The only ones that rang true were the 60-something Yoder and his wife, along with the matriarchal "Reader" we're given in section 4 of this book. All the other characters were 20-, 30-, and 40-somethings who talked like they'd stepped out of some time warp when FDR was in the White House. It was quite comical, really. I imagined college kids and campuses as they were when Rudy Vallee was crooning - not Madonna.

Without question, the book bogs down in section 3 where we're given "the critic's" view of the world in general and Yoder in particular. This is the part of the book where Michener's intellect came through most tellingly - he wouldn't have been able to create a credible character without a grasp of the world as viewed through the rarified air of critics and their circle of intellectual elites. But it was also the part of the book that tried too hard to impress us with Michener's cleverness and mastery of world literature. It was also in this section, as well as section 4, that Michener gave us numerous glimpses of his own rather well-known liberal political leanings based on the way he crafted certain characters and cast them not as snobs but as the truly enlightened.

In the end, the characters in the story I found most worthy of our respect and emulation were Yoder and his wife. Simple people, telling simple stories, that simple people can enjoy. I was left wondering whether Michener identified more with Yoder or the critic. I've concluded that he was basically a Yoder, but wanted to show us in this book that he has the mental horsepower of the critic and brilliant academic.

Personally, when it comes to books, I'd much rather read the Yoders of the world - little critical acclaim but fun to read - than the snobbish "critically acclaimed" stuff. This book was probably somewhere in between those two extremes - surely not Michener at his best, but Michener trying to make a statement. As such, it isn't for everyone. I'm a better person for having read it, but had this been the first book he authored, there was little here that would have kept me coming back for more.

The publishing world as it was a few short years ago appears at center stage in this book, not - as its title might indicate - the creative process that results in a work of fiction. Kinetic Press, a fictitious New York publishing house, can easily be considered the book's main character.

Lukas Yoder, whose voice carries the first of four segments (there are no chapter divisions), has finally produced a best seller after dismal numbers for his first four books have nearly caused Kinetic to refuse him further publication. His editor's insistence that if Yoder goes, so does she, is all that's given him the chance to see Book #5 in print. But that book's a runaway. Now Yoder is finishing the manuscript of Book #6, which he declares must be his last. He's past 60, and Emma - the beloved wife who supported him, both financially and emotionally, though all the years when his writing went nowhere - welcomes this announcement. She can't stand another "seige," as she puts it.

THE NOVEL's second segment belongs to Yvonne Marmelle, Yoder's editor. Born to a "genteel poor" Jewish family tied to New York City's garment district, she enters the publishing industry out of genuine love for books and works her way from beginning go-fer to senior editor with Lukas Yoder's first novel as her debut assignment.

Karl Strieber, professor at the local college that graduated Yoder, aspires to become a respected critic. Like so many other literary scholars, he also hungers to publish his own novel. In the book's third segment, Strieber's voice carries the reader through his experiences and entwines his life with the lives of his neighbor Lukas Yoder and their shared editor, Yvonne Marmelle.

The book's fourth and final segment takes on the voice of Jane Garland, a wealthy widow for whom good books are one of life's passions. She already loves local author Yoder's novels, and meets critic Strieber when her brilliant grandson becomes Strieber's student. When young Timothy also is published by Kinetic, with Yvonne Marmelle as his editor, Mrs. Garland and Ms. Marmelle strike up a friendship that's tested by tragedy as THE NOVEL reaches its unexpectedly dramatic climax.

Although much of this book consists of character study, I turned its pages with consistent pleasure. It's rich and insightful, and often wickedly funny, too. I was impressed that Michener spoke as a prophet for his profession, when he admitted that an author writing in the 1990s - just before the electronic publishing industry, driven by popular use of the Internet, took off - couldn't begin to guess how books would be published in the next century. My only quibble is one that has nothing to do with Michener. Whoever wrote the promotional copy for THE NOVEL spoke of a mysterious threat, and promised that Jane Garland would hold the key to solving this mystery. Not quite an accurate description of the plot! In fact, rather a misleading one. But that's not the author's doing, and THE NOVEL is wonderful reading.

Gone are Michener's great historical panoramas told in terms of those who lived them, in favor of the microcosm, both of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the world of the novel. We are asked "What is expected of the novel?" JM gives us four different answers, all correct. If his characters are seen through a glass darkly, it may be because they as participants are less of interest than the conflicts arising from their perception of what a "good" novel should be. I believe Michener has succeeded in doing precisely what one of his characters advises against: writing a novel about something abstract. "The Novel" is not about its characters at all, but about itself and the craft. Both a great read and something I would recommend to all those who aspire to be novelists.

I believe Michener has succeeded in doing precisely what one of his characters advises against: writing a novel about something abstract. "The Novel" is not about its characters at all, but about itself and the craft. Both a great read and something I would recommend to all those who aspire to be novelists.

Many people have commented that this book tends to move a little slowly, or that it's abstract, or that it's got some odd experimental features. All true.

SPOILER ALERT - DON'T READ BELOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK YET.

But this is the whole point of the book. The Novel is the book that he's writing about in the Novel, only slightly more novelized. Get it? It's an amazingly clever literary trick. I think the reader is meant to discover this about 1/2 way through the book, and when read with this perspective it takes on a whole different flavor.

James Michener once again uses his craft to tell a story that he knows best: the story of a Novel. An interesting note about this book is that it is divided into four parts, and each part is narrarated by a different person, each a different part of the writing process. First, the Writer tells of his life in Dutch Pennsylavania and the trials of writing his final novel. Next, his Editor tells of her past and how she came to be one of the best in her business and her battle to keep her writer from being dropped. Third, a Critic, who teaches a a near-by college, tells of his own struggle to be a writer and his envy of the Writer's fame. Finally, the Reader becomes involved with the other three to solve a mystery that affects them all. As always, Michener both entertains and educates. This is a must-read for anyone who is a writer, wants to be a writer, or just likes to read.

I had a considerably different experience reading this book than did many of the other reviewers, but then I only read it because it is about producing a novel. I enjoyed the first two sections, The Writer and The Editor, and cared little for The Critic and The Reader. For someone wanting a fast moving tale, I wouldn't recommend Michener at all, and especially not this book. For someone wanting to learn something about writing a novel, without reading an instruction book, this is a good approach, as long as you aren't put off by the preachy, idealistic message at the end.

There is a group of writer's, and always has been, that feel that writing is all about promoting social reform and that to write about anything else is a waste of time. The second half of the book, and especially the last section, deals with this issue. The transition of the protagonist, Lukas Yoder, into such a writer, is jammed into the end of the book. A lot of Yoder seems to be Michener, but certainly not everything. For one thing, Yoder stays married to Emma, his wife, for his entire adult life, while Michener went through three. Since I haven't read any of his very early novels I don't know if this was a transition he went through in his lifetime.

What I like about the book, besides the insights into the writing and publishing processes, was the tremendous amount of work he did on research that was reflected in his writing. I didn't like that he killed off a main character with the book ninety percent done, and at first I didn't understand it. When I was finished reading I did understand that he used this event for Yoder's metamorphosis into a 'modern' writer. The reason I don't like this is that Yoder was very plodding and thoughtful, but Michener has him go through what amounts to a complete metamorphosis as the result of his reaction to a very emotional event. If Yoder had been closer to the boy who was killed this might have made sense, but because he wasn't, a longer, more protracted process in Yoder would have made more sense to me, if it made sense at all.

The thing I found most disappointing in the book was when Jenny Sorkin and Mrs. Garland analyze what Jenny's book needed to pick it up. As soon as I read that the book was to be about a school girl's experiences with football players on various major college campuses, I knew that a rape had to be involved. When it kept not coming up, I wondered what was going on. Then Jenny and Mrs. Garland discard a whole list of devices as being too common and expected, and finally come up with the rape, which would imply that the rape wasn't predictable. I found this device to be so transparent as to be an insult to the reader, unless that reader wanted to believe what he or she was being shoveled.

This is a book set in the 1980's and 90's and it's written in 4 voices: the writer's, the editor's, the critic's and the reader's.
I had to stop and think at several points in this novel and even read passages to my friend in order to discuss further what the meanings were. It was startling to read the description of America in it's founding days. A place of peace, land to farm, freedom from taxes and oppression. Wow, look at us now.

The writer...what a lot of work to accomplish a feat that I merely pick up and read. I get to take it for granted, read it and move on.

I loved the 2nd voice the most...how the editor came to be and the power she owned. If she hadn't owned her power and if she let herself be swayed, look what wouldn't have happened. I love that power and seek for it in myself. As with most successful people in the novel, I noticed with longing that they were mentored at critical points in their lives, in guidance, advice, financial, and key opportunties in order to turn out so well. Oh to have had those same experiences in my life. It made me think of a podcast I listened to where a man was saying that we need to nurture our children ... every one of them... because we are missing so much in this world had they lived up to their potential in their later years. And I selfishly ask, what about me? Who could I have been?

And then the voice of the critic...It had me coming and going. So many viewpoints to consider. Is pop culture the doom of our society? Could we make it without poets and true artistic thinking? Is that the human force behind our societies?

Which person/voice most resonates within myself? The writer, the editor, the critic or the reader? What would it be like to have had this kind of education and surroundings in my life? I was heartsick at the editor's boyfriend. So much talent wasted because he couldn't analyze himself enough to find a way to make a difference. He wanted to write the novel and yet he was more of a teacher and critic. Same with the critic, Karl Streibert. Publishing houses are inundated with wannabe writer's works who have yet to learn what their real role/strength is in the literary world. Writing seems so easy in a naive kind of way, but read this novel and then decide. There are many wonderful ways to experience the written word as this novel shows.

It was a pleasure to vicariously taste of it all in this book. THANK YOU Mr Michener!

What I loved best about this story was the way Michener made us believe that people in the book business (agent, critic, etc.) took seriously, even lauded, the nonsensical novel by a young writer. The subject novel, quoted at length, had pages written upside down and sideways, no story line, no plot -- it was nonsense, complete nonsense. Mercifully, Michener did not allow the young writer to write another such gem.