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Journey: A Novel (1994)

Journey: A Novel (1994)

Book Info

Genre
Rating
3.75 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0449218473 (ISBN13: 9780449218471)
Language
English
Publisher
fawcett

About book Journey: A Novel (1994)

Wow, what a great read! Michener sets the stage with five strong characters: Lord Luton, Lord Luton's friend - Harry Carpenter, Luton's nephew - Philip Henslow, Philip's friend - Trevor Blythe, and an Irish blue collar worker - Tim Folgarty. Lord Luton and his friend are older, Philip and his friend are fresh out of college and Folgarty is middle-aged. In 1897 they set out to cross the Atlantic to Montreal, Canada, and then to make their way across Canada to the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska. Lord Luton's absolute stubbornness not to step foot on American soil in their journey to the gold fields leads to the group's demise. Michener captures the frenzied period of the gold rush days - especially in Edmonton. This is a good book that touches on various aspects of leadership. Michener is able to bring to life the real hardships and needed discipline to spend two years in wilderness in north-west Canada.

It’s an old one but a good one. As with so many of Michener’s novels, he drops us deep into history with this tale of a misguided journey across Canada to the gold fields near the Alaska-Canada border. The characters are fictional, but the story is so real I found it hard to believe it wasn’t true. Lord Evelyn Luton, an English nobleman and explorer, decides he wants to travel to the gold fields on the Yukon. He recruits three of his high-class friends, plus an Irish servant to join him. According to the maps and brochures he has studied, it should be an easy trip, but things go very wrong once they leave “civilization.” It’s a long, hard journey, made worse because Luton refuses to set foot on U.S. soil and he won’t back down when his decisions are clearly wrong. Will any of them make it to the Yukon alive? This is a great novel, made even better by the extensive author notes at the end.

Do You like book Journey: A Novel (1994)?

I've always enjoyed Michener's works, especially Hawaii and Ice Palace, so I was expecting another saga spanning over a few generations in "Journey". I was a little disappointed to discover the time elapsed in this work was just over 2 years and it was focused on one episode in the characters' lives.Lord Luton and four companions set forth from England to mine gold in the Klondike - thus, the journey referred to in the title.The linear timeline does move along smoothly, and maybe I read too fast
—Joanna Mieso

Couldn't sleep one night and, for some unknown reason, this book was on the table by my bed. I realize some people don't like Michener, but I'm not one of those people. The book is about The Luton Party consisting of five Englismen and their journey to find gold on the Klondike River. It's based on detailed historical, cultural, and geological research. It's really about, as Michener says, dreams and determination. Couldn't put it down and now am going to research that time in history. The hardship of travel, the lack of correct maps, all the misleading information given, and the people along the way took me back in time and made me wonder about these men and women who were true adventurers.
—Tia

This was a terrific story that was ruined by Mr Michener's self-indulgence for tacking on a chapter of poetry (including-unfortunately-his own)and another chapter explaining-interminably-what inspired him to write the book and everything having to do with his interactions with all things Canadian. At least it helped to partly explain why he included the photo of the woman on the frontispiece. (But not so much as to where he came by her name.)Then again, if he had left off the last two "chapters", he would have given his publishers a book that a was a little more than 200 pages long-and how were they going to sell that to the public?Still, the book was a hell of a lot better than the two previous novels I unintentionally read that took place in the Arctic ("The Terror" and "The Solitude of Thomas Cave").I think that I'll stick to Jack London.
—Gary

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