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zacochsner's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
wwatts1734's review against another edition
4.0
After the phenomenal success of his first novel "Tales of the South Pacific", James Mitchener returns to the Pacific islands to write his next great Geographical novel, "Return to Paradise". Written after spending a year with his wife in the various islands of the South Pacific in the late 1940s, Michener writes this fascinating novel as a prototype to the kind of geographical novels that Michener would devote most of the rest of his life writing; novels like "Chesapeake", "Texas", "Poland" and "Centennial".
"Return to Paradise" is actually a combination travelogue-short story collection set in the various islands of the South Pacific. Michener will take one chapter describing a given island, such as Tahiti, Fiji, Guadalcanal, New Guinea, New Zealand or Australia, and then devotes the next chapter to a short story set in that island. In this way, Michener paints a very vivid picture of each island, it's geography, the people who inhabit it and the foreigners who have come to claim it. Michener's short stories illustrate in a wonderful way the Polynesians who inhabited the islands along with the various ethnic groups who have migrated there, from the Chinese of Tahiti to the Vietnamese of Santo Spiritu to the Indians of Fiji and of course the British of Australia and New Zealand. Michener also discusses the various foreign beachcombers and adventurers who have come to make these beautiful islands their own paradise. It is really a fascinating story.
The only thing that I did not like about "Return to Paradise" is the travelogue-short story back and forth that characterizes the novel. While this format is informative, it is hard to really get into the book when each chapter radically changes its focus. Michener's later books are much better and grabbing the reader's attention and keeping it throughout.
Still, I would highly recommend this novel, especially to those who love a good story of the South Seas!
"Return to Paradise" is actually a combination travelogue-short story collection set in the various islands of the South Pacific. Michener will take one chapter describing a given island, such as Tahiti, Fiji, Guadalcanal, New Guinea, New Zealand or Australia, and then devotes the next chapter to a short story set in that island. In this way, Michener paints a very vivid picture of each island, it's geography, the people who inhabit it and the foreigners who have come to claim it. Michener's short stories illustrate in a wonderful way the Polynesians who inhabited the islands along with the various ethnic groups who have migrated there, from the Chinese of Tahiti to the Vietnamese of Santo Spiritu to the Indians of Fiji and of course the British of Australia and New Zealand. Michener also discusses the various foreign beachcombers and adventurers who have come to make these beautiful islands their own paradise. It is really a fascinating story.
The only thing that I did not like about "Return to Paradise" is the travelogue-short story back and forth that characterizes the novel. While this format is informative, it is hard to really get into the book when each chapter radically changes its focus. Michener's later books are much better and grabbing the reader's attention and keeping it throughout.
Still, I would highly recommend this novel, especially to those who love a good story of the South Seas!
paul_cornelius's review
4.0
A sequel of sorts to Tales of the South Pacifc, Return to Paradise takes a different formal track than that of the earlier volume. Here, in a collection of independent short stories, Michener precedes each tale with an essay that ranges in subject matter from geo-political argument to virtual travel brochure. The result is an overall effort that does not equal that of Tales of the South Pacific but whose individual stories sometimes rise above anything he has written before.
Most of the essays are not only readable but provide essential background information for the fictional short stories. All but two, that is. The essays on New Zealand and Australia are unbearable abominations. Yet the stories that follow, which rely upon those essays for their crispness and assumptions, are two of the best in the book, especially "Until They Sail," the story of four New Zealand sisters who strike up romances with American troops during World War II.
Still, it is the stories of the tropical South Pacific I most like. The stories about Tahiti and Polynesia, the Marquesas, Guadalcanal, the Solomons, Fiji. "Povenaaa's Daughter" and "The Mynah Birds" will last with me for quite some time. One final note worth remarking, each and every story ends with a sharp, shocking twist. You quickly come to expect them, and, for that reason, they lose their punch, although never their shock.
These two works of Michener, Tales of the South Pacific and Return to Paradise, for me, are his best works. They show the writer at his freshest, before he became a living corporation for producing bestsellers (not that the later works do not have merit--Michener was a master storyteller at every stage of his career). But it is the stories of the South Seas and America's presence in the Pacific during and right after World War II that I most appreciate. Readers will always be able to revisit the books and stories on the South Pacific and get something new out of them. I'm not sure the same can be said for the enormous epics that followed.
Most of the essays are not only readable but provide essential background information for the fictional short stories. All but two, that is. The essays on New Zealand and Australia are unbearable abominations. Yet the stories that follow, which rely upon those essays for their crispness and assumptions, are two of the best in the book, especially "Until They Sail," the story of four New Zealand sisters who strike up romances with American troops during World War II.
Still, it is the stories of the tropical South Pacific I most like. The stories about Tahiti and Polynesia, the Marquesas, Guadalcanal, the Solomons, Fiji. "Povenaaa's Daughter" and "The Mynah Birds" will last with me for quite some time. One final note worth remarking, each and every story ends with a sharp, shocking twist. You quickly come to expect them, and, for that reason, they lose their punch, although never their shock.
These two works of Michener, Tales of the South Pacific and Return to Paradise, for me, are his best works. They show the writer at his freshest, before he became a living corporation for producing bestsellers (not that the later works do not have merit--Michener was a master storyteller at every stage of his career). But it is the stories of the South Seas and America's presence in the Pacific during and right after World War II that I most appreciate. Readers will always be able to revisit the books and stories on the South Pacific and get something new out of them. I'm not sure the same can be said for the enormous epics that followed.
sara_gabai's review against another edition
4.0
Written in 1951. Essays and stories about the South Pacific. Interesting viewpoint.
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