Customer Reviews

Journey

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This historical adventure based on fact was enjoyed by all six women in our book club. Michener captured the lure of gold very well and class distinctions of the time so well that some book club members felt very annoyed. The tale is very believable and a great read.

A treasure in Canadian History. The Canadian Gold Rush makes a fascinating study and the research and history tucked into this little volume of fiction compliment fiction writers like Jack London, non-fiction writers like Farley Mowatt, and poets like Robert Service.

The rather amusing antipathy for anything American belabored by Lord Evelyn Luton might not have worked coming from a Canadian Author, but Mitchener pulls it off with a unique strange humour that is integral to the characters.

The story itself is a brief 200+ pages. Cut from the final manuscript of the best-selling "Alaska", this small literary gem packs a punch.

An added bonus for poetry lovers is the collection of poems at the end of the book, many of which will be familiar, some few readers will have seen before. Told in the context of the gold rush, even the most familiar are somehow new. Also, of special interest to writers is the story behind the story, including the editing decisions that led to this cut from a much larger work becoming a full book of its own.

I was fortunate enough to stumble on a copy at a library sale. I truly hope they had multiple copies, for mine is an uncirculated hardcover at a price to make the author weep.

For the entertainment value of a well spun tale set in the Canadian north, or for the wealth of history that is anything but dry and dusty, this book is a treasure.

I can't imagine what Books On Tape had in mind when they chose their reader for James Michener's books. I don't expect every performer to be as skilled and entertaining as Frank Muller, but Larry McKeever is absolutely the worst I've come across. His narration lacks life, intonation, and everything needed to hold the reader's attention. The fact that he was chosen as a narrator is outrageous.

Let's call a cat a cat. It is a weak Michener. If it is the first you read, it will probably your last. Michener, in the afterword, tells us that The Journey was originally in his book Alaska but was cut by the editor. He then took that section and made a book.

The premises are good. A party of adventurers, including a snob British Lord, a poet, a retired Colonel and a cunning Irishman go on a journey to the Yukon River during the gold rush. This is too little to make a book.

There is some good characters interraction, some good moments but they are drowned in the long repetitive parts of the journey, to the point where you keep thinking something will happen and...

If you want a good Michener, look at my review of the Covenant or Poland, forget The Journey

Michener usually does excellent research and gives a great taste of an area/time. 'Journey' was a complete disaster in this area - there's a decent description of the train (the TRAIN?), nothing describing Montreal, almost nothing Edmonton or any of the stops en route, and zero description of the Klondike or Dawson. There's no 'story' of the prospectors or other travellers (save a few paragraphs on Irina). The Edmonton description prepared me for bleak descriptions of a 90% death rate, or a trail littered with frozen bodies - but nothing.

OK - so Michener didn't do a book I was expecting on history or a travelogue or a technical description of anything. It was a character study of the 5 men. Well, the character development was truly shallow and incomplete. None of the characters seemed believable - they were cardboard stereotypes. The "hero" led his very well-financed group of hardy men into a deadly course that every single expert advised against. He contemplating KILLING Irina because he thought her presence would make the over-winter camping harder? WOW! It's hard to imagine that the others would offer virtually no arguements when their lives are litterally in the balance. How can anyone believe they would suffer 8 months in a tiny len-to cabin when there's a fort 50 miles away, 1 more day on the boat or 3 days walking after the freeze?

I enjoy adventure stories. I like tales of hardship. The book maintained my interest (I was expecting something interesting once they reached Dawson - Alas!). So it gets 2 stars. But had I not read MUCH better books by Michener I would never glance at a 2nd one if I had to decide based on "Journey."

This was my first Michener novel and I found it to be extremely entertaining. I too was disappinted that almost everyone dies off, but this isn't supposed to be a warm & fuzzy book, it's about a difficult journey made more difficult by the person in charge.

Michener originally wanted to include this story in ALASKA, but that novel was already quite long. This is a perfect lead-in for Alaska and a great Michener book for the beginner or someone looking for something a bit shorter while between Michener classics.

First I want to say that I am a big fan of Mr. Michener. "Mexico" may be my all time favorite book. So you can imagine my disappointment at finding a book that had so much potential that went absolutely no where. What a basis for a story. A small group of adventurous, proud Englishmen; the harsh and lonely Canadian wilderness; and gold fever. Unfortunately the gold was never a topic. The Canadian wilderness with its extreme weather, beautiful landscapes, and abundant wildlife, was only passively mentioned in very small detail. And as for the characters- the only ones you really liked died, with very little discussion ( this did not bother me because I know reality has to play into a book of this sort). And the one character you truly begin to despise lives long enough to cause one of the worst endings to novel I have ever read. One mans pride- excuse me, stupidity- killed the most admirable characters in the novel, then went home as soon as he accomplished the task. I have never been so frustrated in my life with a book.

I have read several James A. Michener books. For a book that is very short for Michener's usual fair, this is very good. Why? For this one, Michener sticks to one plot. No, you don't have his usual descriptive settings or his lengthy battle of some animal trying to survive. This book just tells the story. A very good story. The plot involves five men from Britain who go to Canada to get to the gold rush in 1897. There real mission is to get there by traveling only on British territory. No one has ever done that. As any one knows, traveling in Canada over mountains is not that easy. These five men will soon discover that the idea of adventure for the sake of honor may be a high price to pay. One of the reviews I saw for this book listed on Amazon, didn't like the idea of killing off some of the characters. One wrote that this book was depressing because of that. James A. Michener doesn't write anything without history backing him up. Killing off some of the characters proves how hard this journey really was. And, I am sure that some men did see this as an adventure not a suicidal journey. Some men just don't see the big picture. If you have never read a James A. Michener book, this could be a good one to start with. But, you have not read anything until you've read a Michener epic. Try Texas, Hawaii or Caribbean.

I think James Michener has a good story going here. I was impressed by some of the irony and allusion, especially Luton's stubbornness when it came to Americans, as well as taking advice from anyone after he'd already made up his mind. I think more detail and suspense could have been added, but that's strictly reader preference. The deaths of some of the characters left me feeling a bit lost as well. It was as if their death kind of snuck up on you and then wasn't talked about after about a page or so. However, the overall storyline pleased me very much. I think it personified cultural stubbornness as well as gold rushes in general. I nearly laughed out loud when reading about some of the inexperienced travelers that were trying to make their way through the Arctic (i.e. the man with the modified tractor). I was also very satisfied by the ending. It was unexpected, but complete and understandable. Also, I liked the fact that Luton stated from the beginning that he wasn't after gold and by the end he hadn't changed his mind at all. After all, the title of the book, Journey, certainly implies that the adventure and travel is the fun part of the book, not a quest for gold or a search for pride. Overall, I liked the book and thought it was a very entertaining read and believe it deserves four stars.

I think I'm beginning to understand how popular fiction writing becomes "Literature." It apparently has to be depressing. If this is "the best novel of Michener's career," as the Milwaukee Journal states it, then I don't need to depress myself further by reading the rest.

I just don't believe it was necessary to kill off his major characters to make this a believable story.