2006-11-26
Recessional
Author: James A. Michener
Recessional is the story of ... well, there's a problem. "Story" implies a plot, and there isn't much of one. What I can say is, Recessional is a look at the events of an unspecified year in a particular retirement community in Tampa, Florida. What I can't say is that the events are connected. A dozen characters each have their own stories inside this so-called novel, and for the most part they are not connected. Each scene is individually well-written, the characters are reasonably good, and there's an obvious main character whose own life defines why the story begins on 31 December one year and ends right around 31 December the next year. But without a driving plot, this is only a novel in that a lot of words were written to describe that year.
Just look at how long it took me to read this. Each scene gave me no reason to read the next one, helping lead to a four-week gap in posts to this site. (A mitigating factor: I read half of a Tom Clancy novel before spilling iced tea on it and happily tossing it in the trash on 5 November. So it was actually just three weeks on this one.) On the plus side the author can clearly make beautiful images with the English language. I wonder if he's ever used this skill to tell a story. Recessional is not recommended unless you need to break a reading addiction.
Recessional is the story of ... well, there's a problem. "Story" implies a plot, and there isn't much of one. What I can say is, Recessional is a look at the events of an unspecified year in a particular retirement community in Tampa, Florida. What I can't say is that the events are connected. A dozen characters each have their own stories inside this so-called novel, and for the most part they are not connected. Each scene is individually well-written, the characters are reasonably good, and there's an obvious main character whose own life defines why the story begins on 31 December one year and ends right around 31 December the next year. But without a driving plot, this is only a novel in that a lot of words were written to describe that year.
Just look at how long it took me to read this. Each scene gave me no reason to read the next one, helping lead to a four-week gap in posts to this site. (A mitigating factor: I read half of a Tom Clancy novel before spilling iced tea on it and happily tossing it in the trash on 5 November. So it was actually just three weeks on this one.) On the plus side the author can clearly make beautiful images with the English language. I wonder if he's ever used this skill to tell a story. Recessional is not recommended unless you need to break a reading addiction.
