Iberia

Michener clearly loved Spain and knew many Spaniards as friends. He discusses Spain's history, culture, art, literature, dance, geography, sports, and spirituality. Rather than putting all that into nice neat little buckets, he weaves it all together to paint an entrancing picture of the Spanish soul as he knows it.

Unlike many such authors, Michener uses photos very carefully to illustrate aspects of Spanish culture, from the assuredly adamant eyes of the Guardia Civil to the warm smiles of the poorest people. He also takes a lot of time to explain words that are difficult to translate and what they tell us about Spanish culture.

Recommended with equal enthusiasm whether from the viewpoint of history, religion, culture, or art. Also of special value to those living in Spanish-speaking countries or regions with large Hispanic populations, as Spain's influence on those cultures, as a mother country, is readily apparent.

Bravo, Sr. Michener. Faltan mucho a Ud.


a massive, thousand-page love affair with Spain   April 19, 2001
E. A. Lovitt (Gladwin, MI USA)
47 out of 55 found this review helpful

For my hundredth review, I wanted to describe a book that meant something very special to my husband and me. Although "Iberia" was originally published in 1968 (and spent the next seven months on the "New York Times" best seller list), we used it eleven years later to plan our first trip to Spain. It had not gone out-of-date. If it had aged at all, it was in Michener's less-than-balanced account of the Spanish Civil War (of course the same could be said of Hemingway).

"Iberia" is a massive, thousand-page love affair with Spain, part history, part travelogue, and part parador-and-tapa-bar guide. It is not 'merely' a tour guide to Spain, any more than Rebecca West's "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" is 'merely' a tour guide to Yugoslavia. With the possible exception of his Pulitzer Prize winning "Tales of the South Pacific", I believe this to be Michener's finest work.

My opinion (or prejudice) is based on our unforgettable journey through Spain. Michener took us places we never would have found in the standard tourist guides. We pigged out in his tapa bars-"first comes the seafood--- the anchovies, eel, squid, octopus, herring, shrimp, salmon, five kinds of sardines, five kinds of fish; next come the boiled eggs, deviled eggs, egg salad, potato omelets cut in strips, vegetables, onions, salads; third are the cold meats in great variety, including meat balls, York ham, Serran ham, tripe, brains, liver in a variety of styles, beef, pork and veal; and finally the hot dishes..."

I booked us into many of the paradors that he recommended. Paradors are combination hotel-museums, which serve some of the best food in Spain---"Where practical, the paradors are housed in ancient buildings, such as old convents, monasteries, castles no longer in use, hospitals dating back to the age of the Catholic Kings, or inns in which Columbus may have slept."

In Merida, we stayed in a parador that is housed in the 500-year-old Convento de los Frailes de Jesus (Michener's personal favorite). Then there was the castle-parador, the parador that is built within the Alhambra, and the modern, ski-resort parador on the slopes of Monte Perdido. We stumbled across the last-mentioned resort while lost in the Pyrenees, and had it literally to ourselves (and one other couple), since the season was late spring.

My one regret is that we did not get to attend the ancient horse fair that follows Holy Week in Seville, and is so lovingly described in "Iberia." This fair dates back "two thousand years to the days when Romans came here to buy horses for their generals...If a man likes horses, this rough-and-ready market with no rules and little order would delight him. It is conducted under a blazing sun and has about it a strange and ancient quality. I have attended at three different times and found it difficult to believe that I was in the twentieth century..."

If you are planning a trip to Spain, book yourself into the paradors well in advance of your trip (at least a year in advance if you plan to visit during or immediately after Holy Week), try to attend Seville's ancient horse fair, and above all, buy and read Michener's "Iberia."


Michener's Best   February 14, 2000
22 out of 22 found this review helpful

As an avid fan of Michener's fiction, I decided to pick this book up to see how Michener dealt with nonfiction. I can without hesitation say that Michener is at his best in this genre. "Iberia" is a stunning achievement of meticulous care and fascinating recounting of events.

His account of Spain, though dated now by thirty years, made me feel as if I were there travelling side by side with Michener. It is wonderfully detailed and always engaging. There are long sections that are just descriptions of art and architecture, and being the art philistine that I am, these became a bit tedious. Still, my appreciation of these passages came less from the art described than from the obvious passion with which Michener describes them...

This book is a must-read.


Not the Michener you know and love   January 15, 2003
Noah R. Freeman (Boston, MA USA)
16 out of 25 found this review helpful

Bought this book for reading while on a recent trip to spain. Ive lived there on and off for a long time, and was hoping that Michener would paint a picture that would add to my trip, and my love of the area.

Warning- this is NOT a typical michener book. This is a personal travelogue, and has nothing to do with the other novels we all love- Chesepeake, Alaska, etc. As a travelogue, it shows Michener not as the compassionate individual we would all come to expect, but as a whiny, sexist, individual I would NEVER want to have dinner with, let along travel in Spain with.

This book mostly features Michener whining about how Spain does not live up to his mythical image of what it should be. He complains that the flamenco is not genuine enough. That the mosques are despoiled. The only way this book is interesting is as a period piece- not about spain, but about american paternalistic, patronizing, and generally obnoxious attitudes when it was written.

I was hoping this book would make me love spain more deeply, and become more interested in Michener as an individual. It did the exact oppostite. Luckily I know enough about spain to see through it. If you do want a book to make you love Spain, and with a genuine warmth for the people who live there, I like "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Hemmingway.


Michener's best non-fiction   May 3, 1999
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

"Iberia" is a travel log which Michener compiled over years of trips to Spain. His love and respect for this "castle of old dreams and new realities" are evident in his poetic and informative language. We are also treated to people who, though nonfictional, are characterized as larger-than-life members of a fantastic story. Not having even been to Spain, and despite the book's age (30+) years, I feel I have been there many times and could take anyone on a tour of the nation. Fabulous.