Caribbean

Caribbean: A Novel
$14.95
I read this book to familiarize myself with the history of the area while visiting. It's a fairly easy read, just ridiculously long (yet I feel it still wasn't long enough to cover everything it should have). This is my first Michener read.

What I enjoyed most was the sea battle and pirate section. They were an adventure and now I can see why people like pirates so much - I never quite understood the romanticism attached to them before, only the terror. A huge component of this was being given a detailed background of the movements of the Spanish fleet as well as the industry & attitude of the budding colonial islands immediately beforehand, which allowed me to fully appreciate the situation.

I think this is where the rest of the book fails. I feel it does not provide adequate background for it's black, mixed or non-white characters, and their voices and characterization fall flat. I was also extremely dissatisfied with the first two chapters on Arawak and Maya life, which seemed very forced and uninspired to me. Since I read this book to get a little history and feel for the place, and since I only encountered black or mixed people on my visit to the Caribbean, it appears there was much lacking in this telling of the Caribbean story.

However, I did learn many other things and was able to gain a little more perspective on history I already knew about the colonial European powers, so it was definitely not a complete loss. Perhaps the reason many of the main characters were written as outsiders looking in was because that is what Michener was, simply an outsider, armed with an armada of historical publications and research, looking in. In reality, Michener is doing our job for us... researching and delivering, in an entertaining way, 700 years of history in a convenient 800 small pages. Honestly that is not an easy feat, and I applaud his efforts. Instead of complaining more about the perspectives this book lacks, I should seek them out from the history books and Caribbean authors myself, to which Michener provides ample references at the end of his book.

In conclusion, the book gives a good overview of the European history in the region and a snapshot of its "current" situation (c 1980's). It also gave me a useful feel for the historical time line and geographical orientation of the islands. I found it easy and interesting to read and would recommend it to an outsider looking for a place to start understanding the Caribbean...

The Best Caribbean Beaches / WAVES: Virtual Vacations + Vol 1 Hawaiian Dreams (side 2)
$19.99
this product never arrived to my folks.but were assuming it's because the the USPS. they seem to be missing other mail as well.

Frommer's Caribbean Ports of Call (Frommer's Complete)
$17.99
A useful book for planning visits to Caribbean islands. I am using this with the descriptions of my cruise ship's shore excursions: Do I want the shorex, or do I do the sightseeing on my own? The book also gives opinions on what is worthwhile to see and what isn't...which you don't get from the cruise line (everything is worth seeing). The recommendations on what to buy or not buy at each stop are also worthwhile.

The acid test for this book will come when I take the cruise: were the recommendations good or not?

A Brief History of the Caribbean: From the Arawak and Carib to the Present
$17.00
As a reader of regional histories across the globe, I was extremely disappointed with this book from both a historical and literary perspective. This is a highly euro-centric history, with questionable statements about slavery, very little on Caribbean identity, and a war-to-war chronicle. The information is so badly organized that it looks like the editors didn't know what to do - so they put in headings every few paragraphs to "aid" the reader. Very disappointing altogether because the history is such an important and complex one to tell.