Caravans

 

Caravans – by James Michener

Sadly, this was just about the worst book by James Michener I have ever read.  Perhaps that was harsh. Let me try again.  This was just about my “least favorite” book by James Michener that I have ever read.  Opinions differ, after all, and judgement of an author’s work is purely subjective.  If you choose to read this one, hopefully you’ll enjoy it a lot better than I did.

Most of Michener’s biggest and best works are the ones where he focuses on a geography.  Books such as “Texas”, “Poland”, “Alaska”, and “Caribbean” cover thousands of years of the particular location, with focus being on fictionalized people that reside in the specific area.  As these novels progress, we read about the characters’ tangled lifetimes that are always affected somewhat by the unique region.  Michener has the ability to tell great stories while also educating his reader about his place of focus.

With a book title such as “Caravans” you might think that this one is a tad different.  Well, it is different in that the story doesn’t take place over a couple of millennia, but this book DOES focus on a particular geography, and this is really what ended up being a major downer.  The geography is Afghanistan, and the time is 1946.  There is an actual plot here, but Michener seems to spend much more time writing about the place than he does the plot.  To be a bit unkind, Afghanistan simply isn’t a very nice place to read about.  In fact, it’s down and out depressing, gross, and ugly.  There was nothing about this place that appealed to me. Strangely, Michener states in the book’s postscript that he has some sort of bizarre affection for the country.  I guess if one feels this way, they might actually enjoy this book.

The plot here involves a young American woman who, against her parents’ wishes, marries an Afghan native, relocates to the barren location, and then seems to disappear.  A young U.S. Embassy employee named Miller is tasked with finding her.  During the quest, we’re so distracted with observations about the customs and indigenous people of the region, that at times we forget that there actually is a plot going on.  We read about a barbaric place where men treat women like camels, theft is so rampant that one must guard a parked vehicle, and women are stoned to death in public after committing adultery.  Poverty is rampant, dysentery is everywhere, and you can almost smell the camel dung when reading.  This book made me want to take a bath.

As the story progresses, I felt the plot very weak; as meager as it was.  I don’t know, something about a young person “rebelling” against their cozy Western background by abandoning everything and living as a so called “free spirit” in such a place such as this just doesn’t ring very true to me.  Michener explored such a topic with his novel “The Drifters” about 1970 hippies, but at least THAT book took you to places that were much more cultured and civilized.  The story here, though, reeked of unbelievability. And I do mean “reeked”.

There are odd diversions as well.  For example, once early in the story, we get an entire chapter devoted to Miller and his colleagues writing and performing a play for each other – at a U.S. Embassy Office (!).  What such a bizarre episode is doing in a story like this is beyond me.  My only guess is that Afghanistan is such a primitive place, that there really isn’t anything there to do for those from the U.S. that find themselves “assigned” there.  I simply didn’t get it.

Perhaps this book may have been received better at the time it was written (1963) than it is now, but I was highly disappointed.  The only positive thing about this experience is that, as far as Michener books go, this book was much shorter at about 430 pages in the paperback format.  Had I had to read one of his “normal” sized tomes (that are frequently in excess of 1000 pages), I’m pretty sure I would have given up.   Not a pleasant way to spend one’s leisure time. Nor does Afghanistan feel like a place I would ever want go anywhere near.