Gene W. (Roy45) -
I have read almost all of James Michener's books and this is by far his worst. It is preachy and moralizing and on every other page, the characters have a "break through" in their understanding of life, but it has no effect or improvement on their impoverishd lives. It is a depressing novel and its hard to find a point in why it was written. Michener wrote it in 1949 and perhaps it is in a way his own coming of life as a novelist,but there is no feeling of having learned anything by reaching its long end, just a feeling that finally I am done with this book and its depressing characters.
