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Centennial
by James A. Michener
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Topeka Bindery (2002-04)
ISBN: 0613339959
EAN: 9780613339957
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
School & Library Binding: 1038 pages
SKU: 26546
Condition: Collectable Like New
Comments: THE HARDBACK BOOK! RANDOM HOUSE, 1974. THE UNABRIDGED 1ST EDITION. EARLY PRINT. WITH GREAT MAPS! HARDCOVER W/GILT LETTERING, DUST JACKET AND PAGES ARE IN PERFECT CONDITION! Rapid shipping w/FREE tracking. GREAT PACKAGING . Air Mail.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
"Michener is America's best writer, and he proves it once again in CENTENNIAL."
THE PITTSBURGH PRESS
A stunning panorama of the West, CENTENNIAL is an enthralling celebration of our country, brimming with the glory and the greatness of the American past that only bestselling author James Michener could bring to stunning life. From the Native Americans, the migrating white men and women, the cowboys, and the foreigners, it is a story of trappers, traders, homesteaders, gold seekers, ranchers, and hunters--all caught up in the dramatic events and violent conflicts that shaped the destiny of our legendary West.
From the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Good, but not his best
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-12-14
YES, I LEARNED A LOT AND FEEL BETTER ABOUT THE BOOK NOW THAT I AM FINISHED. I DO HOWEVER, FEEL THE BOOK DRAGGED AND WAS SOMEWHAT DRY. UNLIKE MANY OF THE OTHER REVIEWS I READ HERE, THIS WAS NOT ONE BOOK I COULDN'T PUT DOWN. I HAVE READ 8 MICHENER NOVELS AND CONSIDER HIS WORK TO BE AMONG THE BEST, BUT TO DATE THIS HAS BEEN THE WEAKEST. AS USUAL THERE ARE MANY INTERESTING HISTORICAL EVENTS THAT MICHENER PUTS IN PERSPECTIVE, IN AN EASY TO UNDERSTAND MANNER.
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Excellent service
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-09-26
Very pleased with the speed and qual;ity nof the book that I ordered. I would buy from this seller again.
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Great book, but SKIP certain parts
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-07-30
I love Centennial. Lame Beaver, Pasquinel, Levi Zendt, Elly Zalm, McKeag - unforgettable! For them alone the book is worth it - a classic. They live and breathe and allow Michener to bring magical life to 18th and 19th century Colorado.
BUT...
A hefty chunk of the book is simply not worth reading.
Centennial is presented as a book-within-a-book, with a modern narrator, Lewis Vernor, who is trying to sell his writing to "US" magazine. TOTALLY DULL. At first, while reading it, I thought I'd made a mistake and was reading some unedited, in-house, pre-publication manuscript. What were Michener's editors thinking?
I recommend skipping ALL sections relating to Lewis Vernor. That includes ALL of chapter 1 and the few pointless pages at the end of every subsequent chapter.
Also: Frankly, I would skip chapters 2 and 3 entirely, and would start reading about ten pages into chapter 4 (which in my paperback copy is page 149), at the entry of the Arapaho Indian Lame Beaver in the year 1756. This is where the book comes to life. You miss nothing before that, just a bunch of boring, dry stuff about Colorado's ancient history that you could get much more quickly off Wikipedia.
And since I'm going wild: The book peters out once it hits the 20th century. The characters lose their magic and the story becomes flat. All in all the last two hundred pages are worth skipping.
But don't worry, that still leaves you over 700 worthwhile pages to read!!
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Really, really... Big
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-07-19
It's a good book. If it had progressed a little quicker it would have been a great book. I understand the goal is to give us a slice of the american west, but let's face it; not everything about the american west is all that interesting. I could have done with an overview of the cattle business, not getting a graduate level degree in it. Also, I think it went on one chapter longer that there was real material for. Again, I understand he wanted to bring it up to the present (the year is was written), but I was completely disinterested by that point.
Ok, that was the down side. Now the up side: The first half of the book was fantastic. Great characters, great stories, great victories, great tragedies. The best parts were about Ely the Mennonite wife, Lame Beaver, and the whole section on the dust bowl. This is story telling of Dickens level skill.
I highly recommend reading it, but be prepared for parts to feel like school work.
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An interesting History of the West
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-11-27
This is another of Micheners great epic novels. After reading quite a few of his great stories I am beginning to see some of the common threads of his writing. In this story he slightly adjusts the model that he used for the epic novel "Texas." This story is told from the perspective of a University Professor, asked to be a consultant on a magazine project that captures the flavor and history of the old west. This paradigm is usually used to end each chapter. As usual Michener went way back this time (the opening of the book) to the beginning of the earth and formation of the Rocky Mountains. Reminded me of Alaska when he took the salmon all the way back to its conception or The Source when he chronicles the development of Israel from cave man times . What I really like though is as he is capturing the overall legendary stories, he also takes time to tell of people and situations that one would not ordinarily consider. A good example was entertainment; he shared the story of a family of performers and how they were able to survive, while still managing to include the classic cowboy stories. In another chapter he provided quite a bit of background on his characters (set in Pennsylvania) that were destined to travel west. The background provides for a much richer story as we learn of their experiences on the Oregon trail. He also deals with the dust bowl, which gave me some new insights as to that sad time in American history. To really appreciate the plight of these poor farmers you should read "The Grapes of Wrath."
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