What do You think about The Fires Of Spring (1982)?
Probably my favorite Michener novel yet (I've read about 5, I think). This is the ambling, sometimes rambling, story of a young man's experience growing up in the midst of the development of the notion of Americana (I can't think of a better way to put it--it's not the typical American experience, necessarily, but as he dabbles in vaudeville and running a con game at a ticket booth on a boardwalk and editing and publishing pulp trash, I think Americana is a safe way of putting it). It's about his loves and losses, affairs of hormonal passion, defeat and disappointment on top of one another and alway this persistent but not necessarily superhuman ability to rise above his circumstance. In all ways, he's average, and that's what I like about him. He has an average heart with dreams that are too big for his circumstances, just like any of us. What made this novel soar was his realization, in the novel's final act, that he has a story to tell, and doggone it, he's going to tell it his way. I could see Michener's heart here, very clearly. His conversation with an editor and his defense of his writing style against her changes and admonishments is a triumphant passage. It's not a show-stopping monologue but a conversation that I'm sure many author has either had with an editor/publisher or has dreamed of having. I loved this book. It is an examination of the pre-war artist's heart, and you can see shades of what the upcoming war is going to mean for the heart of the artists as the world will change forever. This book achieves a poetry that surprises very much because of its ordinary beginnings. While it's not epic in length, it's epic in heart. Great read!
—Adam K.
One of Michener's early novels, and for all it's flaws it's really astonishingly good. You don't really find stories like this any more.It's the story of a young man who grows up essentially an orphan, not too long after the turn of (19th) century. You could call it a coming-of-age novel, and it is, but that doesn't really begin to capture the energy and vitality of the characters.As well as a good read, it's a pretty insightful portrait of an America that no longer exists. And that is probably for the best, yet the portait is fascinating all the same.
—Mathew
This is early Michener -- a coming-of-age novel about a boy growing up in the Midwest during the Depression. My father often told me that it was the closest description he ever read of what life was like during that time. Dad's early childhood was in Oconto, Wisconsin. It's been on my to-read list for a long time, and now, even though I can't discuss it with him, I'll read it with him in my heart.I'm nearly finished. I'm enjoying the story, but don't really see what Dad must have seen. The book seems to be at least semi-autobiographical with a story that does not match at all what I think my father's experience was like. I don't think the writing is all that great, either; it's not terrible at all, but it bugs me from time to time.But I settle into bed and open the book thinking, "Ok, Dad, let's see what happens next."
—Julie
