Chesapeake
James Michener, 1978
★ 4.22 from 28k ratings on Goodreads
Four centuries on Maryland's Eastern Shore, told through the families, canoes, storms and wars that shaped the bay. A slow, generous sweep across generations, with a calm storytelling voice and a deep attachment to the bay and its weather.
Feels like awe, nostalgia and joy. About family, society and nature.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy long family sagas tied to a specific place and its history. Be aware that later sections can feel dry or rushed, and the book deals bluntly with slavery and racism.
Why read it
It gives you a long view of how a place and its people change, with the bay itself as a steady presence through storms and wars.
A page from the book
What it costs to leave before they name your punishment.
It took him only a few moments to reach that decision. The council would not act hastily; it never did. There would have to be long speeches, condemning him, but if this child’s father had actually used the word punish, a much more serious penalty than outlawing might be in store. His enemies had grown so outspoken that some might even demand death; if they convinced themselves that he was indeed a spy for the northern tribes, this would be logical. What readers say
Readers find this sweeping, place-centered family saga absorbing and richly researched, praising its vivid Chesapeake setting and long historical view. Some dislike the later sections as dry or rushed, and several are unsettled by its unflinching treatment of slavery and racism.
James Michener.Michener never knew his birth parents; he was raised in poverty by a Quaker widow named Mabel, a fact he rarely discussed.
Books that feel like this
More by James Michener
Hawaii
James Michener, 1959
Michener follows Hawaii from undersea geology to plantation politics, asking who gets to call the islands home.
Centennial
James Michener, 1956
A scholar’s journey through the massive changes of a rapidly modernizing America, tracking ambition, history, and the sheer scale of cultural transformation.
The Covenant
James Michener, 1980
A sweeping novel of South Africa, from a prehistoric clan beside a dying lake to the modern state, told through the people who claimed the land.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Chesapeake for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy long family sagas tied to a specific place and its history. Be aware that later sections can feel dry or rushed, and the book deals bluntly with slavery and racism.
- What is Chesapeake like?
- A slow, generous sweep across generations, with a calm storytelling voice and a deep attachment to the bay and its weather. Feels like awe, nostalgia and joy. About family, society and nature.
- What should I read after Chesapeake?
- If you liked Chesapeake, try The Eighth Day (Thornton Wilder), The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen) and East of Eden (John Steinbeck).
A taste of the feed
What kind of love would refuse to spare you anything.
When God loves a creature he wants the creature to know the highest happiness and the deepest misery … He wants him to know all that being alive can bring. That is his best gift…. There is no happiness save in understanding the whole.
The Eighth Day · Thornton Wilder
The arithmetic of cool, and who is left to do the ordinary work.
All around him, millions of newly minted American millionaires were engaged in the identical pursuit of feeling extraordinary - of buying the perfect Victorian, of skiing the virgin slope, of knowing the chef personally, of locating the beach that had no footprints. There were further tens of millions of young Americans who didn’t have money but were nonetheless chasing the Perfect Cool. And meanwhile the sad truth was that not everyone could be extraordinary, not everyone could be extremely cool; because whom would this leave to be ordinary? Who would perform the thankless work of being comparatively uncool?
The Corrections · Jonathan Franzen
How fast a quiet street becomes a firing line.
They had taken no more than a dozen steps away from the cottages when a musket barrel came smashing through an unbroken window in one of the cottages ahead. The door flew open, three more muskets poked out. The muskets boomed, killing two of the surprised soldiers a yard to Orry’s left.
North and South · John Jakes
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