- Paperback: 165 pages
- Publisher: University Press of Florida; 1 edition (Sep 9 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0813031524
- ISBN-13: 978-0813031521
- Product Dimensions: 22.7 x 16.8 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 91 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #749,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
According to an afterword by former Michener ghostwriter Joe Avenick, this short novel was rejected by Albert Erskine, Michener's Random House editor, because it too closely resembled Sayonara. More likely, it was rejected because it's not very good. The story, such as it is, involves two romances. Mary Ann Mays, an attractive, hopelessly impoverished, abandoned mother of four in Pottsville, Pa., finds a wallet and returns it to Paul Reynolds, a handsome, debonair and available investment banker who falls instantly in love with her. He marries her, moves the family into a fine home and provides love and financial security for life. The alternating story involves divorcée Melissa Tomlinson, an attractive Philadelphia librarian, who visits the Florida Keys and meets Joe Carlton, a ruggedly handsome, available cop who falls instantly in love with her, marries her and provides love and emotional security for life. The unconnected plots shift back and forth without complication, suspense, conflict or development. Dialogue is wooden, speechy and incredible. Both women remain dreamy and adolescentlike; both men are deeply sensitive, caring, responsive and generous. It's like a formula romance with none of the formula's pap pleasures. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
"In Matecumbe, written at the height of his career, Michener returned to the shorter form of his earlier novels to explore tangled human relationships. Matecumbe is a counterpoint to his epic novels and should serve to remind readers of Michener's extensive talents."--Stephen J. May, author of Michener: A Writer's Journey
Pulitzer Prize-winning author James A. Michener was in his sixties when he began traveling frequently to the Florida Keys. One result of those visits was the novel Matecumbe, named after two of the islands that comprise the town of Islamorada, located approximately half way between Miami and Key West.
Never before published, Matecumbe features many of the hallmarks of Michener's best work, including detailed descriptions of place. However, the plot is much more intimate than that found in most of his large-scale, epic historical novels. Focusing on the parallel lives of a woman and her mother, both divorced, Michener spent his creative energy on character development and allegorical storytelling. Random House, his publisher, wasn't pleased, and wanted the mega-best-selling author to concentrate on producing "heavyweight" books like Hawaii and Centennial. Matecumbe seemed too much in the vein of his earlier romance novel, Sayonara. So it sat in a drawer until, eventually, Michener gifted it--including the copyright--to Joe Avenick, his friend and former ghostwriter. Avenick played a key role in the research and writing of Sports in America and Chesapeake, and introduced Michener to Melissa (Missy) DeMaio, who soon became the primary reason for Michener's increasingly frequent visits to the Keys.
Biographers and critics have long agreed that Michener's personality and his characters were both affected by his relationship with DeMaio. As perhaps his most encompassing autobiographical novel, and the one written in the midst of these changes, Matecumbe provides what may be tantalizing glimpses into Michener's life.
The publication of Matecumbe, in the centennial year of the author's birth, will be a boon for fans who have longed for more Michener in the ten years since his death.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Matecumbe, Dec 6 2007
By Fydly "bookworm" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Matecumbe: A Lost Florida Novel (Paperback)
For those who are expecting a Michener masterpiece, this is a disappointing piece of fiction. The plot may have some parallels to the events of his personal life as stated in the afterword but this is where the value to the avid Michener reader ends. I received the book in the mail and sat down to it with great expectations. Finished it up the same night just to get over with it. I woud recommend it only to those who are interested in the genre of "Barbara Cartland" romance novels.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
This Was Michener?, Oct 3 2011
By ramchaza "Support Our Vets" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Matecumbe: A Lost Florida Novel (Paperback)
I'm a die hard Michener fan and had never heard of this book so excited to get it. I did read the reviews but I've loved things other people hated, and it was Michener!I can't begin to say how disappointed I was with this story. Stiff, characters unbelievable, had no idea how he could have written it.
Then I read a biography by someone who worked with him in his later years, who he'd given this manuscript to. And this man says he ghost-wrote some of Michener's other books. He gave some explanation of the book, that it was supposed to represent this or that, but it was page after page of almost agony.
Wish I had never read it or the bio i got. I gave it one star only because it was JM.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
no stars wasn't an option so I gave it one, May 4 2009
By Melanie Postell "Funny Bunny" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Matecumbe: A Lost Florida Novel (Paperback)
I am a Michener fan from Florida so I was excited to stumble across this title. Unfortunately I did not read reviews first. I really can't believe that this book is by Michener. It is like a poor attempt at a Harlequin Romance novel, which would have been rejected by even the lowliest of publishers. It is a shame that it was published and now muddies Michener's literary reputation. It must be some kind of mistake, I keep thinking. So, very, very bad.I mean, really, unbelievably bad. Disturbingly bad.
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