Iberia
by James A. Michener
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Book Reviews of Iberia
Book Review: Michener's Best
Summary: 5 Stars
As an avid fan of Michener's fiction, I decided to pick this book up to see how Michener dealt with nonfiction. I can without hesitation say that Michener is at his best in this genre. "Iberia" is a stunning achievement of meticulous care and fascinating recounting of events. His account of Spain, though dated now by thirty years, made me feel as if I were there travelling side by side with Michener. It is wonderfully detailed and always engaging. There are long sections that are just descriptions of art and architecture, and being the art philistine that I am, these became a bit tedious. Still, my appreciation of these passages came less from the art described than from the obvious passion with which Michener describes them...
This book is a must-read.
Book Review: Interesting period piece
Summary: 3 Stars
I took this book on my 10-day trip to Spain. Though I did not read it cover-to-cover, I enjoyed reading passages about places I had seen or events I had read about. It is a very dated account of Spain, but in many ways that is part of its charm. He refers to the Republicans in the Civil War on occasion as the "Reds" and at times seems to have swallowed a Racion of Franco propoganda in one gulp. I found his description of the events of the siege of Toledo quite telling: he admits parenthetically that his account is based on one particular right-wing book and that many of the facts he had subsequently learned were apparently a Fascist myth.Book Review: A truly great book
Summary: 5 Stars
an avid fan of Michener's fiction, I decided to pick this book up to see how Michener dealt with nonfiction. I can without hesitation say that Michener is at his best in this genre. "Iberia" is a stunning achievement of meticulous care and fascinating recounting of events.
His account of Spain, though dated now by thirty years, made me feel as if I were there travelling side by side with Michener. It is wonderfully detailed and always engaging. A note of caution the spain michenor describes is not present day spain,the book is more a passionate history.
Book Review: Michener's best non-fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
"Iberia" is a travel log which Michener compiled over years of trips to Spain. His love and respect for this "castle of old dreams and new realities" are evident in his poetic and informative language. We are also treated to people who, though nonfictional, are characterized as larger-than-life members of a fantastic story. Not having even been to Spain, and despite the book's age (30+) years, I feel I have been there many times and could take anyone on a tour of the nation. Fabulous.Book Review: Awful
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is a rambling, dated, starry-eyed tourist's view of Spain. For a cultural guide or a historical record, try Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past or The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World. If you must buy it, get some tissues -- you'll be bored to tears.