The Novel

The Novel - by James Michener

James Michener was a fascinating author in that, for the majority of his works, he always made a particular geographical location the main focus of his books rather than a person or a group of people.  We would normally read about all the things - even from before the recorded history of the place - that were indigenous to the particular area.  He would usually focus on a family, or a group of individuals that were living in the area, and then tell the tale of the family throughout the proceeding centuries.  Even though the (mostly) fictitious characters’ families had long detailed histories within the pages, they always had their lives shaped by the particular state, country, or geographic region that was the title of the book.

As Michener got older, most would agree that the quality of his books slipped a bit, and he started to slightly alter some of the foundations of his later books.  The Novel is a prime example.  Now, I’m speculating here, but my guess is that Michener had every intention to write this book with his familiar formula.  The main character of this book was to be rural Pennsylvania inhabited by the Pennsylvania Dutch.  At some point, he switched gears for some reason, and instead, wrote this book about writing a book about the Pennsylvania Dutch.  Did you catch that?

When the story opens, we meet Lukas Yoder, a sixty-something year old man who is one of the Pennsylvania Dutch.  He’s just finishing his eighth, final novel, in a series about, well, The Pennsylvania Dutch.  As we meet Lukas and his equally humble, simple country wife, we learn that the first three books of this particular series didn’t sell well at all, yet with a steadfast publisher who believed in him, he was able to finally break out with book number 4, and has since become incredibly popular with his latter books selling in the millions.  We’re allowed a brief glimpse into the life of a best selling author, but, sadly, a bit too brief.  Michener spends an awful lot of time, as I mentioned, on the area where these people live - their homes, their food, their customs, their hobbies, etc.  At times it seems like the actual “novel” becomes a supporting player instead of the main role.  Then, the focus abruptly shifts, and Michener focuses next on the life of Yoder’s publisher  (the book is essentially broken into four sections, The Writer, The Publisher, The Critic, and The Reader).

Although I wasn’t ready to stop reading about Yoder, I did enjoy the second part of this book that focuses on Yvonne Marmelle, Yoder’s steadfast supporting publisher.  We then read about her history, when she started at the bottom of a somewhat second-rate publishing house in New York City back in the 1960’s, and her climb to the top.  We read, for example, that this particular  publishing company receives several hundred unsolicited manuscripts each day, and only about one in nine hundred is good enough to bear consideration.  Of course, as her story is told, we read about the incident when Lukas Yoder sends in his unsolicited piece of work.  Although no one else at the publishing company really wants to give it a second look, Marmelle senses “something” in this author, and a relationship is born.

The third act focuses on “The Critic”, Karl Streibert.  In a sense, he’s connected to Yoder and Marmelle, but in my judgement, we stray too far this time.  Streibert is a University Professor and is one of those cultivated individuals that seems to have his nose forever stuck high in the air.  Of course, anything popular in the literary world is complete rubbish according to him, and he, along with his contemporaries, tend to only favor material that the layman can’t even begin to comprehend, let alone enjoy.  So we read all about his life, his mentors, his European trips to “uncover culture”, his hatred of popular works of fiction, etc. etc.  He really doesn’t seem that bad of a sort, it just seemed like Michener was straying too much from the original story to keep us interested.

The last section, “The Reader”, is undoubtably the worst of the lot.  I won’t go into details, but this section really takes a bad, unnecessary turn that sends the entire book in a completely different direction.  I think the goal was to focus on something entirely different to give Lukas Yoder an idea for his next novel, since his eight book series on the Pennsylvania Dutch has now come to a conclusion.  Yoder says he’s retiring, but we all know how that goes.  This whole section seemed unnecessary and forced.

I still enjoyed this book overall, but I wanted more.  I think had Michener cut out the last quadrant altogether and fleshed out the other three sections (particularly the first two) I would have enjoyed it more.  The book also (sadly) seems a bit dated since it takes place in a world before e-mails, e-books, and e-correspondence.  This was an overall good read, but I thought it could have been slightly better.  I tend to feel this way a lot about Michener’s latter day works.