Novel, The (Monograph)
James A. Michener. The Novel. New York, NY: Random House, 1991, 446 pages. Hardcover and mass market paperback.
Michener’s book, The Novel, is a work of fiction in English set in the imaginary and picturesque Grenzler region of eastern Pennsylvania. Grenzler is mostly rural with the fictional town of Dresden at the centre, set between the real towns of Pottstown, in the south, Reading, in the west, and Allentown, in the north. The Grenzler district is mapped on the book’s endpapers with the home of the principle character, Lukas Yoder, a Mennonite and his Mennonite friend’s farms also marked.
The Novel is in four parts with each part told from the view point of different but highly interconnected characters involved in the life and work of the older fictional writer, Lucas Yoder. The character Yoder is described as writing historical novels which depict the Grenzer district. In Part One, “the Writer,” Lukas Yoder has completed Stone Walls, his last instalment in his “Grenzler Octet” and delivers it to his publisher. Part Two is titled “The Editor” and concerns the personal and professional life of Yoder’s editor Yvonne Marmelle. “The Critic” is Part Three and in it Karl Streibert is a professor at a nearby university and a critic who must come to terms with his failed novelistic ambitions and his jealousy of both Yoder and his own students who develop into accomplished writers. Finally, in “The Reader,” philanthropist Jane Garland is friends with all three and both a resident of the Grenzler district, and an avid reader of Yoder’s works.
James Albert Michener (1907-1997) was a major American author of over 50 books of both fiction and nonfiction. Many of his works are historical fiction involving the telling of multigenerational stories and many of these were best sellers. He was celebrated, honored, and became wealthy from his works and several were made into film and television dramas and plays. Though perhaps not one of Michener’s better works, The Novel was nine weeks on New York Times Bestseller List.
Michener was either a foundling or born to an unwed widow. He grew up as a Quaker in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, but did not continue in that faith, and was both educated and taught school in Eastern Pennsylvania. These are areas rich in the history and culture of Pennsylvania Mennonites enabling him to ably use this knowledge in describing Mennonites in a credible manner.
In The Novel Michener explores some of the contemporary issues in the art of fiction raised by narrative literature, such as audience reaction or exalted discourse, or between tales for the masses and art for an elite intelligentsia. Yoder's story, and the fate of his new novel, serve primarily to launch us into a meandering plot that involves the impending takeover of a respected U.S. publishing house by a multinational corporation, careers in flux, several love affairs, and finally and somewhat unexpectedly, a murder.
The identification of Lukas Yoder as a Mennonite is highlighted in all parts of the book and Michener’s treatment of him is thoroughly sympathetic. Yoder is characterized as straight-laced and smug, but also as a successful and popular writer. In error Michener has Yoder making a Hex painting which is something Mennonites would certainly shun. However, he portrays Karl Streibert, a farm boy from a Pennsylvania Mennonite family and Yoder’s philosophical rival, with streaks of near villainy. This identification of Streibert being from Mennonites is only on the first page of part three. In the book Yoder, his wife and a number of local friends are described as faithful members of the local Mennonite Valley Church.
Michener has used Mennonite characters in another novel, Centennial (Random House, New York, 1974). In that book the characters Levi Zendt and Elly Zahm are again depicted positively.
In The Novel faithful Mennonites are characterized as diligent, hardworking, honest, and generous.
| Author(s) | Victor G. Wiebe |
|---|---|
| Date Published | October 2015 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Wiebe, Victor G.. "Novel, The (Monograph)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. October 2015. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Novel,_The_(Monograph)&oldid=133214.
APA style
Wiebe, Victor G.. (October 2015). Novel, The (Monograph). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Novel,_The_(Monograph)&oldid=133214.
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