Iberia : Spanish travels and reflections

by James A. Michener

1982

Publication

Fawcett Crest, c1968.

Status

Available

Description

Reference. Travel. Nonfiction. HTML:Spain is an immemorial land like no other, one that James A. Michener, the Pulitzer Prize�winning author and celebrated citizen of the world, came to love as his own. Iberia is Michener�s enduring nonfiction tribute to his cherished second home. In the fresh and vivid prose that is his trademark, he not only reveals the celebrated history of bullfighters and warrior kings, painters and processions, cathedrals and olive orchards, he also shares the intimate, often hidden country he came to know, where the congeniality of living souls is thrust against the dark weight of history. Wild, contradictory, passionately beautiful, this is Spain as experienced by a master writer. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Hawaii. Praise for Iberia �From the glories of the Prado to the loneliest stone villages, here is Spain, castle of old dreams and new realities.��The New York Times �Massive, beautiful . . . unquestionably some of the best writing on Spain [and] the best that Mr. Michener has ever done on any subject.��The Wall Street Journal �A dazzling panorama . . . one of the richest and most satisfying books about Spain in living memory.��Saturday Review �Kaleidoscopic . . . This book will make you fall in love with Spain.��The Houston Post.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Ysabeau

Best book ever about Spain and the Spanish character.

11 more

LibraryThing member Kuyper

Good read.. Michner has a good eye for detai, as well as some profound insights into the regional character of Spanish culture and society. Unfortunately, it's somewhat dated. Still, Michner's general obsevations have held up pretty well, despite the passage of time, and his style, as always, is

clear and lucid.

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LibraryThing member ElTomaso

An interesting book in which Michener mixes history with thoughts on his travels through Spain.

LibraryThing member NetLeaper

Essential reading for anyone visiting or interested in Spain.

LibraryThing member santhony

I really didn't like this book, though I've read all Michener's work and love most of it. This novel deals not so much with the history of the Iberian peninsula as the culture, art and architecture. I found it to be a real snoozer.

LibraryThing member Lisianthus

A wonderful book! I read it about 25 years ago, then reread it last month and enjoyed it even more, as in the meantime, I've travelled the length and breadth of Spain. He's just so spot-on about everything concerning the country, and his love for all things Spanish just oozes from every page. He's

one of that vanishing breed - travel writers in the mould of Herodotus & Co. He doesn't just breeze in and out of a country, making rapid value judgments and classifying the people into his own mental categories. Michener takes the time and makes the effort to go so deeply into Spanish history, and every little town or village he visits comes to life, proudly reclaiming its past glory. A book to cherish.

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LibraryThing member jscape2000

An interesting mixture of travel writing, memoir, history and sociology. One of the most challenging books I've read because it is so expansive; at times it is too unfocused and becomes a labor. Still, a fascinating study of the Spanish (and Portuguese) character and social narrative.

LibraryThing member Oberon

This book is now very dated having been written during the Franco regime. Spain has (obviously) gone through major transitions in the past 45 years. That said, there is no book about Spain that I would more highly recommend than Iberia. Michener does a fantastic job of describing the art, the

history, the architecture, the customs and so on that make Spain such a fascinating place.

Michener was a prolific and very successful author. Many of his books, especially the later ones, were historical fiction. Iberia does not fit in that mold. Rather, Iberia is a travelogue. To me, Iberia is more like the dream trip you always intend to take with the world's most knowledgeable travel guide who can walk through the town and regale you with tales of the battle fought outside the medieval walls, the history of the cathedral across the street, and the origin of the dish you are having for lunch. Having lived in various parts of Spain, including Andalusia, the real beauty of Spain is in the layers of history and cultures that made their marks, whether in the language or the landscape.

Iberia captures that beauty and bring the richness of Spanish history to life. As an added bonus, the book provides the reader with a wonderful baseline history of Spain. I could not recommend this book any more highly and it has long been one of my favorites.

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LibraryThing member hbergander

I spent many years of my life in Spain and I dare to say, that the best books about this country are written by foreigners, especially by English speaking authors. The first place is due to James Michener, although he is not European. His subtle study of Spain reveals the many reasons why Spain is

different from the rest of the Old World and why there are still four different languages spoken. Robert Vavra’s photos complete the work in a congenial manner.

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LibraryThing member Marse

Whew! It only took me 7 years to finish this book. It is solely my fault, I set it down and didn't pick it up for years, and when I did start it again, it didn't matter that I hadn't read it for a while. Now that I've finished, I feel like reading chunks of it again. It is not a novel, nor is it

simply a travel memoir. It is Michener's paean to the country, culture and people of Spain. Michener had travelled in Spain in the 30s, before the Spanish Civil War and then returned 30 years later to explore it again. He delves into everything that makes Spain what it is, and he loves it, every bit of it: the food, the music, the architecture, the legends, the history, the bullfights, the romance and the reality of it. Even though this book is now 50 years old, I couldn't recommend a better introduction to both Michener and to the puzzle that is Spain. Though I could have done with a little less about the bulls, he did get me to appreciate that there is a kind of beauty to the barbaric practice.

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LibraryThing member kslade

Interesting travel book, but quite long. I skimmed the last quarter of it.
All things about Spain. Learned some interesting details.

LibraryThing member zmagic69

Most James Michener books take a real commitment to finish and this one is no exception. The Trade paperback version is 920 pages. Iberia is the first Michener book I have read, that has photographs throughout the book, though I must confess, for me, they didn’t add to the story in any

significant way. Other very long Michener books I have read: Hawaii, Caribbean, Mexico, The Covenant, were all told in a historical fiction format, starting 10,000 years ago up through the time he wrote the book.
That format worked well because there was a logical flow of history up until the book was done being written, and so even if very significant things happened after the book was written it didn’t necessarily affect the book.
Iberia deviates from this format and is broken into 13 chapters that are mostly geographical, there is a chapter on bulls and bullfighting, but the problem is that each chapter is part history lesson and part travelogue, based on multiple visits to Spain by the author starting in 1931 and ending presumably in 1967- the book was published in 1968. The problem with this is 2 fold.
The first problem is much of what he describes is no longer accurate or still existing.
The second problem is what he chooses to describe and cover as it relates to his visits is completely random.
As usual the writing is superb and the history is facilitating, but the format doesn’t age well

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