Caribbean [Paperback]

"After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." -- Daniel 7:7 (NKJV)

Let me mention that I am reviewing the Books on Tape Unabridged CD version read by Alexander Adams.

Michener's main point in this novel is that life in the Caribbean is mostly driven by base human instincts, the beast in all of us, rather than the spiritual side, the best in us.

When James Michener's Caribbean originally came out, the reviews frightened me off by describing the book as being long, disjointed, very bloody, and overwhelming in its size and complexity. Although I've often passed the book on a bookstore shelf, I had an easy time skipping it.

When I found that I was going to be doing a lot more driving than usual in a car with a CD player, I realized that this might be the best time to take a crack at it. I was glad that I listened to the recording. The story grew on me over about six weeks, but it was very slow going in the beginning.

The book has an overall structure that's not apparent in the beginning: Mr. Michener wanted to demonstrate the cultural strains and economic and social problems on the various Caribbean islands, explaining them in terms of history . . . but with a hope for creating understanding that might lead to improvements. It's a worthy goal for a big novel, but I'm not sure that he succeeded. You will certainly be left with some interesting "what if" questions. Who knew that Haiti was once a place of extreme riches rather than extreme poverty? Who knew that there had been so many slave revolts on the various islands? Who knew about the complex naval competitions among the European nations? Who knew how the Spanish heritage affected cultures on islands that were under Spanish rule the longest?

Be patient in the beginning. Each story is carefully selected to provide one or two threads of a large tapestry that dominates the book by the final story. You'll see those threads and those themes repeated in many different forms. It's interesting. But at first, the book's structure just seems random.

By the middle, you'll probably find yourself becoming engaged. It's hard to ignore the appeal of the stories about pirates.

I thought that the book was way too bloody to make for a fun experience. Instead, you'll be chilled to the bone by the brutality and insensitivity to other people that's displayed again and again. I felt as if I was being taken to the lion feeding cage at the Roman Coliseum on a daily basis during those days when Christians were the main course. Despite that, I'm not sure that the book is sympathetic enough on the subject of slavery's evils and consequences.

I agree with Michener's point that education is critical to improving opportunities for people who live in the Caribbean. I think that point could have been made a lot better and a lot more quickly than the novel does. As it is, there's a little too much trying to impress readers that they don't know the whole story. While that's helpful in the case of Columbus, the book tries a little too hard time and again to make an impression. After a while, it becomes annoying to have unusual, extreme perspectives explained in great detail. Do I really need to know in detail how Danish attitudes toward slavery were different from English ones?

Having spent quite some years in the Caribbean it was great to read about its history and thus revisiting albeit in my imagination old haunts and learn about the other.