Michener's "Chesapeake"

Last night I finished James A. Michener's novel "Chesapeake". All 1083 pages of it. Other than the Bible it is the second longest book I have ever read (the first being "War and Peace" which I tackled for the sake of being able to say that I actually read it). It's not the kind of book I usually read. I would classify it as a "historical saga". Obviously a detailed one. And I loved it.

I first decided to plow through it several years ago. I had an acquaintance, Champ Means, who was, for the entire duration of the time I spent with him, down on his luck. If the name "Champ" was meant to be an abbreviation for "Champion" he didn't exactly fit the description. He lived (albeit for a short time) in a house donated to the Salvation Army, offered to him, on a temporary basis, by the owner. Until the SA came along he was free to use it.

Like I said, he was in fairly dire straits at the time. He had no furniture, no TV, no stereo, I think he may have been using a sleeping bag for a bed. But he did have a copy of "Space" by James A Michener. Concerned about him, I asked if he thought he was going to be alright. He replied something to the effect of "Oh I'll be okay. I've got James A. Michener to keep me company."

Which made perfect sense to me. All of Michener's books are extremely long. If a man has a lot of time to kill he could do a lot worse than immerse himself in one of the man's many books. Champ wasn't being flippant, either. I often saw him with his nose in that book when I would show up unannounced.

I was a fairly avid reader at the time, but I tended to stay away from the extremely long tomes. I don't know why. Maybe I felt that investing such an investment of time in one book would prevent me from reading a couple of less lengthy ones. Plus, I was afraid that my attention span was too relatively short to stay with it long enough to get to the end.

Which proved to be the case when I first tried to read "Chesapeake". Inspired by Champ, I picked it up at a used book store and gave it a go. It was good, but for some inexplicable reason I laid it down and stopped reading it at about the 700 page mark. Now, that is just plumb crazy, isn't it? Getting 3/4 of a book read and then quitting, especially when the portion I completed was as long as at least two more manageable ones. Why didn't I just say "I've come this far, why turn back now?" I have no idea.

But I did remember a lot about it afterwards. The families it's concerned with. Even some of the plot lines. I became determined to read it again, this time all the way to the end. It took a little while for it to rise to the top of "Books I Am Going To Read", but it made it a couple of weeks ago.

"Chesapeake" is far too complex to try and describe it in much detail, and so I have not tried here. Basically it is the story of three familial lines, the Steeds, the Turlocks and the Paxmores, and their place in the progression of time from the 17th century until the late 20th. Book-ended by the subjugation of the Native Americans and the end of slavery (and the continuing struggle for civil rights) it weaves their stories through some of the most important events in the history of our country---the settling of the colonies, the War of Independence, the Civil War, Watergate...

This book has inspired me to read more historical novels, and since Michener has written scores of them I guess I'll primarily read his. He had a great talent for the subject.