Sad Saga

Each time I have said to someone that I'm reading a Michener novel their response is "Oh...his books are really long." Yep: I'm on Chapter 8, page 366 of Alaska and I'm not even half way through the novel. I would not at all characterize this as drudgery. Michener has done such a good job developing the characters and weaving fact and fiction that I actually feel like I'm part of the community where these people live! I was made aware of this while reading Centennial: I cried when Hans Brumbaugh died. Thus...don't judge a book by the number of pages it contains! These novels are worth every page. Given the enormous amount of research he had to do for these novels (yea, I know. He probably had a team of graduate students helping him), his book list is impressive. Michener wrote 26 such novels in his 40 year career, 13 of which were adapted to film. He also wrote volumes of non-fiction and was extensively involved in television and radio. He might still have been teaching at the University of Northern Colorado while he was doing all of this. I've just finished Chapter 7: Giants in Chaos, a bittersweet saga about two controversial pioneers who (individually and together) left an indelible mark on the Alaska territory. Captain Mike Healy and Reverend Sheldon Jackson are both historical figures. Healy was the first American of African descent to command a ship of the United States government. He was the captain of the USS Bear, a real steam powered sail ship in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (predecessor to the Coast Guard) that patrolled the Alaska coastline in the latter 19th century. Captain Healy became quite a local hero and even has a modern USCG ship named for him, the USCGC Healy, commissioned in 1999. Reverend Jackson was an irascible Presbyterian missionary with boundless energy. He traveled extensively and established hundreds of missions and churches in the western U.S. While he was very successful in achieving his goals, his methods almost always infuriated his superiors. He too became a local hero and there is today, a college on the island of Sitka, Alaska named after him. Both were men of integrity, capable of profound generosity and compassion; tireless in their commitment to justice and passionate with regard to their respective calling. Both were deeply flawed: arrogant, incorrigible and sometimes down right abusive toward their subordinates and colleagues. In spite of their truly heroic achievements on behalf of the indigenous people of the region, they are regarded by their colleagues only for the mistakes they make and their good works are undermined by powerful factions in the church and the government. It made me sick to read the court martial proceedings, but near the end of the chapter, there is a heartening turn of events that gives me hope for the human race. Chapter 8 is simply titled: Gold.