Journey by James Michener

First Line: When on 17 July 1897 the steamship Portland docked at Seattle, bringing belated news and hard evidence that an enormously rich strike of gold had been made the summer before along the Klondike River on the extreme western border of Canada, the world was startled by a felicitous sentence scribbled in haste by an excited reporter who visited the ship.

Back in the day, I was a huge James Michener fan, and I thought I'd read all his books. Somehow or other, Journey slipped through the cracks, so I was eager to read it-- especially since it takes place during the Klondike Gold Rush during the late 1890s.

As Michener states at the end of the book, Journey was originally a chapter in his novel, Alaska, and it had to be cut from the final edition. He liked the story so much that he kept it, and it was published as a novel in 1989. (Only someone like Michener could cut one chapter from his book and have it be long enough for a 200-page novel!)

The story follows four English aristocrats and an Irish servant as they take the arduous overland route through Canada, chosen because the leader of the expedition hated America so much that he refused to let even his little toe cross the border into the U.S. In true Michener fashion, I was hooked by the story, the setting, and-- last but not least-- the characters. The U.S.-hating Lord Luton is a supreme example of his class and era, and it's a miracle my eyes didn't lock in the back of my head due to all the eye-rolling he caused me. It's hard for me not to get involved as I read a Michener novel, and Journey was no exception.

If you love historical fiction that not only teaches you about history but also tells a wonderful story, you can't go wrong by reading this book-- especially since it's several hundred pages shorter than a standard Michener novel. Who knows? You may get hooked and start reading those Michener "doorstops," too. The man certainly knew how to tell a multi-generational tale, and few authors can even come close.

Journey by James Michener

eISBN: 9780804151542

The Dial Press © 2014

Originally published 1989.

eBook, 201 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.


 

REVIEW: Gold Rush Dogs

Title: Gold Rush Dogs
Author(s): Claire Rudolf Murphy and Jane G. Haigh
ISBN: 0882405349/ Alaska Northwest Books, 2004
History
Rating: B-

First Line: Legions of treasure seekers during the Alaska-Yukon gold rush era depended on the loyalty and hard work of their dogs.

Murphy and Haigh set out to tell us about the most famous dogs during the gold rush era, and they do an admirable job. This book is filled with photographs of the day: the dogs, their owners, and the places where they lived and worked. Those pictures do a lot to place the reader right in the thick of things.

Of the nine dogs written about in this book, I was familiar with three, having already read a book about the sled dogs responsible for getting vaccine to Nome, Alaska, in the winter of 1925. Dogs did more than pull sleds however. One accompanied naturalist John Muir in his treks over glaciers. Another met all incoming ships at the piers in Juneau. My favorite was Nero, the companion of the richest woman in the Klondike, Belinda Mulrooney. Mulrooney would load Nero with heavy sacks of gold dust to take on an 18-mile walk to the bank. On one such journey, Nero slipped while crossing a deep stream. The weight of the gold dust kept him from saving himself. I'd tell you what happened next, but why ruin the best chapter in a very good book?

This is a marvelous book for any dog lover. It is filled to the brim with interesting stories, history and photos. There is much to be learned in its pages. The only quibble I have with Gold Rush Dogs is its layout. Interspersed amongst the stories of the dogs are other snippets of history. Although related to the information of the chapter they're in, more than once these side stories interrupt the flow of the story of the dog. I found it more than a bit irritating and thought that there should have been a better way of including these extras. That one complaint aside, I enjoyed this book and found it to be a fitting companion to a previous book by the authors: Gold Rush Women.