James A. Michener

Tales of the South Pacific

The tale upon which the Broadway musical "South Pacific" is based explores the people and beauty of the Pacific's Coral Islands as seen though the eyes of a young naval lieutenent.

Lisa Miller

This is Michener's first novel, a collection of loosely linked short stories based on his time in the armed forces in the South Pacific WW2. I gather Michener was a. big. deal. in his time and seems to have specialised in writing epic multi-generational historical fiction novels. However these days he's never mentioned and it's only my love of historical fiction that bought this author to my attention, this is my first time reading his work.

So in saying that, this book, Tales of the South Pacific, is not an epic multi-generational historical fiction. It's a contemporary book of it's time and of the authors personal experience in the Pacific in WW2. It's writing style was very engaging, it was never tedious and stands up very well almost 80 years after publication and I really enjoyed it.

The stories are loosely linked by recurring characters and are chronologically ordered from 1942 when allied forces stopped the Japanese expansion in the Pacific to 1944 with an invasion of a fictional island but symbolises the beginning of the end. The stories are about the impact of the massive American deployment of armed forces, of American men (and a few women) asking "Why am I here?", and their interactions with the colonial, immigrant and indigenous people of the South Pacific. But by having recurring characters the stories still felt full of adventure and invested in their stories.

Tales of the South Pacific

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