Tales of the South Pacific

by James A. Michener

Series

Status

Available

Description

A retelling of the story of the musical "South Pacific," concerning the lives of officers, nurses, a French expatriate, and natives on the islands of the South Pacific during World War II. Includes discussion of the original Broadway production and its cast.

User reviews

LibraryThing member tloeffler

I could probably recite the entire musical by heart, but I'd never read the book. A great group of stories about the Pacific War, fictional (I assume) but based on Michener's observations in the South Seas during WWII. Michener has a wonderful way with a story, but the best thing about these

stories is that they aren't just about war, but about people in the war. There is much more of a sense of these being ordinary men and women thrown into something they had no idea about, and although there are battle stories, it's the human part of the stories that make them so readable. My favorite? The very last, "A Cemetery on Hoga Point." Puts a lot in perspective. Fabulous book. If you've never read it, you should.

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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50

Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener is a Pulitzer winning collection of stories that are an account of World War II in the Pacific and are based loosely on the author’s own wartime experiences. The stories, narrated from a single perspective, show both the racial and social strictures

that were in effect in the 1940’s. Some of the stories are funny and point out our human frailties while others weave a spell binding story of struggle and tragedy. This isn’t the feel-good musical that was developed from the book, although the characters from that musical do appear in a few of the stories. Instead these stores tell of life and death in a tropical paradise.

The author paints a vivid picture of both the days of boredom and the endless waiting that soldiers have to endure, along with the work, planning and logistics that went into keeping the American armed forces moving forward through the islands. I found this book to be an absorbing commentary on the American war effort in the Pacific Theatre.

Along with the striking descriptions of the beauty of these coral islands with their white beaches and green palm trees, the author provides the reader with interesting, unique characters. Some you will love, some you will hate, some are a product of their time while others are well ahead of their time. Along with American military personnel the author introduces a number of natives and gives the reader a glimpse of their lifestyle and what they thought of the Japanese, the Americans, and the war. All the characters are unforgettable and bring the reader to a greater understanding of the American psyche during the 1940’s, and in particular the can-do style of Americans serving far away from home.

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LibraryThing member kcshankd

Fun & well done for what it is - difficult at times to get through the period racism and sexism. Don't expect the musical, but well done from the backwaters of every war.

LibraryThing member BogartFan

Like most of Michener's stuff, it's pretty detailed, takes a while to get through, but is ultimately worth it, like a heavy piece of cake. Short stories about the Pacific in WWII, which start out as apparently random, then sort of meld in the end, an early example of what people are now calling

"hypercinema". Pretty good time-killer.

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LibraryThing member mrstreme

I love the musical, but the storyline in the book was definitely more intense.

LibraryThing member gmillar

Fun. It's easy to see how this collection of linked stories could be reworked into so many other art forms. I am surprised, however, that it won a Pulitzer Prize. One expects more depth and development in a book that wins one of those.

LibraryThing member gmillar

A pretty retelling of the parts of "Tales of the South Pacific". Based on the Rogers and Hammerstein Musical. Illustrated by Michael Hague.

LibraryThing member seoulful

One of the best-written novels of WWII by a master story-teller. Although written in short story form, all are linked, leading up to and culminating in the invasion of a South Pacific island. Great dialogue, characterization, description, and insight into the mind of soldiers in an alien culture,

cut off from home and family. Michener was a Lt. Cmdr. assigned to the South Pacific as a naval historian and writes from his notes and impressions taken during the war.

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LibraryThing member Kelberts

I haven't seen the musical like most people, so I had no expectations about the story. It is a collection of loosely connected stories where some characters reappear, and you're never quite sure who the narrator is other than an eyewitness if not active participant to the events. You do come away

with a good sense of the people, culture and geography of the South Pacific overlayed with the story of American boys at war. I think the story would have been more absorbing as a single tale.

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LibraryThing member jpsnow

Read this in Maui. He published it in 1946 after which it became the basis for the musical. There are a myriad of great characters but the overall theme prevails as the gem within this work. Michener shares the other side of World War II. Forget the Longest Day. These men spent the longest years

waiting... and waiting. Most to return to boring lives or die in places soon to be unknown. I picture this as what my grandfather lived in New Caledonia.

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LibraryThing member jellyfishjones

One of the best books I've read. I'm not generally a fan of historical military fiction, but as the saying goes, a great writer can make anything interesting. Michener's prose frequently veers between bawdy braggadocio and sublime observation in an astute echo of its primary subject - American

soldiers stationed in the South Pacific in World War II. Although each story stands on its own, they are deftly woven together into a larger whole. Overall, I think this work's Pulitzer prize was well-earned.

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LibraryThing member breic

Very unfocused.

> Each man I knew had a cave somewhere, a hidden refuge from war. For some it was love for wives and kids back home. That was the unassailable retreat. When bad food and [Japanese] shells and the awful tropic diseases attacked, there was the cave of love. There a man found refuge.

For others the cave consisted of jobs waiting, a farm to run, a business to establish, a tavern on the corner of Eighth and Vine. For still others the cave was whiskey, or wild nights in the Pink House at Noumea, or heroism beyond the call of valor. When war became too terrible or too lonely or too bitter, men fled into their caves, sweated it out, and came back ready for another day or another battle. For Tony and Charlesworth their cave was the contemplation of another man's courage.

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LibraryThing member reader1009

fiction (wwii war with japan in the pacific; navy and marines and nurses and french plantation owners and various natives and other immigrants)

So that's what PT boats are for.

LibraryThing member bookcrazed

"I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific. The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ocean. . . . I wish I could tell you about the sweating jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and

the waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting." Thus opens James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, a beginning that could so easily be repeated at the end.

As a lifetime fan of the 1958 film South Pacific, I was wrong to think I already knew these stories. In barely more than 300 pages, Michener's 1948 Pulitzer Prize winner opens the door to understanding war from the inside. He wrote this fictionalized memoir of his World War II service while memories of his service were still fresh. A young officer, hobnobbing with the big brass, he was involved with planning and providing war supplies: cots, bandages, meals, body bags, even the construction of air strips. Just as in the film (and the Broadway musical by the same name), there are dramatic battle scenes against a backdrop of romance and humor in the hurry-up-and-wait lives of men waiting to be called to action. But what I've never seen or heard before are the behind-the-scenes plans for waging battles --- and I'm not talking about men in uniforms standing around a large table, pushing battleships around a model ocean. Planning a siege includes estimating the number of troops who will lose their lives in order to have ready sufficient supplies for things like building coffins and erecting hospital buildings, and (if the siege is long) locating a cemetery location --- everything except the names of those who will survive and those who won't. That's what stunned me. Guessing how many soldiers would be killed and how many would be wounded so that necessary staff and supplies could be made ready, so that commanding officers would have enough stationery, pens, and ink to write letters to families of the fallen. Naively, it never occurred to me that being prepared for loss of life involved so many cold-blooded mundane details. Hopefully, we're evolving into societies that find other ways to be heroic than planning the slaughter of one another.

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LibraryThing member stevesbookstuff

I hadn't read this book before, but when I saw it on the shelf of a local bookstore on a visit to Kauai, I had to pick it up and add it to my reading pile. I loved Michener's long historical novels as a teenager and so I knew I'd love this one too.

When it finally came to the top of the pile, I

wasn't disappointed. There's something about Michener's writing style that pulls you right into a story, and he has quite the collection of stories to tell in Tales of the South Pacific. Stories of life during World War II told as only someone who'd been there could tell them. Stories based on real people and events from Michener's time in Naval service, told with the right balance of humor and respect. If it's been a while since you've read this, or if like me you never have, I really recommend it.

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