San Miguel: A Novel

I enjoyed reading Tortilla Curtain even if it was a very depressing story, at least the plot made sense and the characters were well developed. This was not the case in San Miguel: A Novel. The plot was never fully developed; was there even a plot? The characters lacked depth, unless you consider San Miguel, the island, a character. There was absolutely nothing in this book that kept me interested. I finally stopped reading after part 2. Don't buy this book - it's waste of money. Don't read this book - it's a waste of time.

The most distant of the Channel Islands from the coast of California is rain-soaked, wind-swept, and populated by sheep. In San Miguel, T. Coraghessan Boyle tells the stories of three women who made the island their home. While fans of character-driven historical fiction featuring strong women should be pleased with San Miguel, readers who gravitate to plot-driven fiction will probably find this novel less satisfying than some of Boyle's earlier, more captivating work.

Part one tells Marantha's story. It is a masterful portrayal of a woman struggling to control the dark side of her personality, to adapt gracefully to miserable circumstances while coping with failing health. In the late nineteenth century, Marantha joins her second husband (Will Waters) and adopted daughter (Edith) on San Miguel where, with Marantha's money, Will has purchased a half interest in a sheep farm. Marantha hopes to recuperate from consumption but soon realizes that a rainy, windy island is the wrong setting in which to salvage her health ... or, for that matter, her marriage. To paraphrase The Clash: Will she stay or will she go?

With Marantha, Boyle is at his best, creating a carefully nuanced character and describing her life in powerful terms. Marantha knows she has become "a crabbed miserable thing who said no to everything, to every pleasure and delight no matter how small or meaningless," but that is not the person she wants to be. As only a gifted writer can do, Boyle generates sympathy and understanding for a character whose thoughts and behavior are often spiteful.

Part two shifts the focus to Edith and her frustrated desire to be independent, free from her stepfather's tyranny. Hers is a story of isolation and desperation, of a blossoming woman longing for the company of intellect and social grace ("On a ranch, there are no gentlemen or ladies -- there was just life lived at the level of dressed-up apes tumbled down from the trees"). Boyle encourages the same empathy for Edith as he does for Marantha, although Edith is less complex and, for that reason, less interesting.

Part three begins in 1930. It introduces a woman named Elise who, at 38, is newly married to Herbie Lester. Having never been west of the Hudson, Elise moves to San Miguel with Lester. Unlike her predecessors, Elise manages to make a life that, if not quite normal, is generally satisfying despite Lester's growing detachment from reality. In contrast to the first two sections, some chapters in part three drag, adding little to character development while recounting events that are of no significant interest. The story perks up with the encroachment of World War II and a series of dramatic events that foreshadow an inevitable conclusion.

Edith resurfaces in part three as a memory, a tale told by Jimmie, the island's constant resident and the only character to appear in all three sections. While the information Jimmie provides adds welcome continuity, the story of Edith's adult life is disappointingly abbreviated. Elise, on the other hand, is a character in full, but not a particularly vibrant one.

Boyle's surgical prose slices into his characters, exposing their inner workings. The island of San Miguel is virtually a character in the novel, fickle and treacherous, beautiful and harsh, challenging its inhabitants with relentless wind and sand. The sense of isolation Boyle creates is vivid.

That the characters are based on real people is perhaps San Miguel's greatest weakness. At its best, the novel creates tension as the characters struggle to survive the perils of nature and the numbness of seclusion. In part three, however, the story falls flat. Boyle's fidelity to the real-world characters, his failure to make Elise and all of the male characters more interesting than they actually were, causes the novel to lose momentum after a strong start. For its sense of history and place, and for Marantha's compelling story, San Miguel is worth reading, but this is far from Boyle's best work.

This novel which follows the lives of two families separated by a period of about 30 years on a bleak island called San Miguel off the California coast reminded me of Steinbeck's “East of Eden”.

Like several of Boyle's other books – “Water Music”, “The Women” and “Road to Wellness”, for example – it is based on real people and events. The main characters are women and the story is seen from their points of view. It is an impressive piece of work, particularly the portrayal of the first settler, Marantha Waters, who is stricken with consumption and has to survive in a hostile environment with an unsympathetic husband. The narrative moves along at a steady pace over the years although, at times, it plods somewhat and becomes repetitive. Fans of Boyle may be a bit disappointed that the black humor that marks so much of his work is completely absent.

It's historical fiction, taken from three different sources, basically two stories of families who lived in isolation on San Miguel Island. It's wonderful that the author wrote the book and consolidated the lives of the inhabitants of San Miguel in relatively modern times. Even so--No cell phones to call for help, no shopping, no running water, no modern sanitation, weekly or so visits for supplies, etc. It wasn't easy, lots of hard work. There wasn't much mention of care of the sheep which is why they were there, just the shearing was all that was said. I wouldn't mind rural life, but this is beyond rural. The stories were good, sometimes a little too much detail. I skimmed on occasion.

SAN MIGUEL

Wow! -- Just WOW!

T. C. Boyle took me by my hand and escorted me to San Miguel Island, an isle of no return, forbidding, unforgiving, where only the strongest can survive. What a read. What a story -- this is a book I will never forget.

Told in three different voices of Marantha, her adopted daughter Edith, and finally Elise, these three unique women's stories unfold telling of their lives and experiences while living on San Miguel.

Marantha is the first to arrive in the late 1880's. Leaving her family, friends, and well-to-do life, Marantha leaves with her husband as he will work the sheep ranch there. Marantha has tuberculosis and is hoping against hope that the climate of the island will help ease her disease. When she arrives her hopes are dashed as the house they are to live in is filthy, overrun with mice, barren, and beyond repair. The weather is horrible -- cold, damp, rainy, high winds -- really not the ideal conditions for someone suffering with TB. Marantha's daughter, Edith, absolutely hates the place and finds it as welcoming as prison. Her husband, Will, is in love with the entire place. He wholeheartedly jumps into the role of raising sheep and trying to improve conditions on the ranch. Marantha is miserable and things for her and Edith go from bad to worse as time moves slowly forward.

Edith's life on the island is then told. She is forbidden to leave San Miguel and works hard every day taking care of her father and the hired hands Adolf and Jimmie. Edith hates San Miguel with a passion and attempts to escape not only the island and it's gloomy life but also the chains her father has forced upon her young life. Edith stops at nothing to flee as the love she once had for her father turns to bitter hate and resentment. Does she succeed? Read this wonderful book.

The last woman we meet who will call San Miguel home is Elise. She arrives as a new bride, married to Herbie. Herbie is a WW1 vet, anxious and totally excited about life on the island. The newly weds take to island living like ducks to water and carve out an existence tending to the sheep, living in solitude, at harmony with nature and isolation. Years pass, things change, their lives are dictated by San Miguel. As their lives fly by quickly on the island, we are introduced to a host of new characters as it is now the 1930's and 1940's and visits to the island are more frequent than they were in the past.

Boyle has the Midas touch when it comes to writing. This book is based on real people and their time spent on San Miguel, a tiny little island off the coast of California. It is a brutal place, yet filled with beauty. Boyle combines history, facts, and fiction, along with real people and their genuine lives into a masterpiece of a book. You as the reader will feel every cough Marantha suffers, every breath she struggles to take. You will feel Edith's desperation to depart from her own private hell on San Miguel and experience the isolation both Edith and Marantha feel. And you will enjoy the peace and tranquility Elise and Herbie find there, living their lives alone, perhaps raising a family, enjoying the peace, quiet, and beauty of San Miguel. They fall into a pattern of sweet calmness and love being secluded. While they enjoy company they also resent the disruption visitors bring. Three different women; three different stories.

This is my first T.C. Boyle book; it will not be the last. I loved the story line, the characters, the fact it was history being brought to life under the magic of his writing. Also, the art work on the cover of this book says it all. This book is highly recommended.

Thank you.

Pam

This is historical fiction about life on San Miguel, a wild and remote island off the coast of Santa Barbara. San Miguel is barren and treeless, wracked by wind and sea, barely fertile enough to support the sheep that overrun it. Whether it can also support a family - and at what cost - is the heart of the story. The book starts in 1888 when Marantha arrives with her husband Will, their stepdaughter Edith and their maid. Marantha is ill with consumption, and the "fresh island air" is supposed to be healing. She is dismayed to discover conditions far worse (and challenges far greater) than she is prepared to confront.

Marantha is a difficult character to like. At times her complaints are justified (such as when she awakes, spasmodic with tuberculosis, in a bed soaked with cold rain from the leaking roof). But often she is as tiresome as she is tired: she knows she should "show a brave face," but does she even try to cope with mismatched china and the monotonous society of their two ranch hands? On one hand, she is sympathetic because of her difficulties (she cannot climb the island's hills and cliffs, she can't voice her frustrations without falling into a spasm of choking coughs). On the other hand, it's a story of desperation - if life on San Miguel refuses to nurture her, can she only be bitter in return?

In Part 2, Marantha's story recedes and the book follows her daughter Edith. On San Miguel during her teen years, Edith is untamed but craves society. This story has less depth, and might be best read as a mid-novel coda to Marantha's decline. Edith is vivacious where her mother was weak, petulant where her mother silently shrieked. But, even with strength and a voice that Marantha never found, Edith may not have much more to say. Like Marantha, her life has its share of misery. But again this raises the question of whether she's truly oppressed, or whether she's simply living out the heritage of her parents' bitterness.

In Part 3, San Miguel's story skips forward to the 1930's. Though we've left the characters behind, the Island is now our old friend. If the book has a heroine it is Elise, who arrives during the Great Depression prepared to undertake the hard ranching life with her adoring husband. San Miguel is just as bleak and brutal, but Elise embraces it with the romantic energy of a young bride on an adventure. Elise and Herbert have more modern comforts than the generations before them, but also more modern travails. And here is where T.C. Boyle is brilliant: their story is a piercing portrait of a most ominous decline, with the island of San Miguel a questionable refuge in the eye of a storm. I found this depiction of Herbie, seen through the eyes of Elise, to be one of the most poignant and striking views of marriage in recent literature.

It's worth noting that San Miguel has a pace so slow, at times it is outright meditative - a sentence for every pained muscle, a page for each bleak moment. Boyle's prose can capture a world in a single word (a "retreating chin") but often veers toward the wordy -- especially when the narrative follows the ramblings of Marantha's melodramatic mind (how many metaphors can there be for a hocked up ball of phlegm?) But this isn't bad. Reading it is a visceral experience, and it feels like being inside the character's skin.

In the end, this is a story of human families in all their weaknesses, stripped bare in a land that cannot nurture. This opens up raw and painful truths, but also makes space for moments of unexpected grace. Boyle has brought the full skills of a literary novelist to bear imagining the lives of historic figures. The historic accounts of these people are published at Legendary King of San Miguel, Elise Lester's autobiography, and San Miguel Island: My Childhood Memoir, 1930-1942, by Elise and Herbert's daughter Betsy Lester Roberti.

TC Boyle has such a gorgeous writing style. I found myself looking up words in my Kindle dictionary (at Seattle Arts & Lectures: "A reader, commenting on Boyle's extensive vocabulary, said that she enjoyed looking unfamiliar words up on her e-reader as she read. He responded that looking up words while reading, at least for fiction, pulls you out of the narrative and is to be discouraged." Shelf Awareness) I was happy to hear the new words. They just weave extra depth into an already complex fabric created by Boyle in his stories.

San Miguel is a tiny island off the California coasts, the westernmost in the chain of the Channel Islands. In other words, the last stop. And it is for a few of the characters that come to inhabit the place, but especially the women. While the men are there to make a living, to challenge themselves, the land, the status quo of the forbidding island, the women are doing what they must do to survive and keep their families alive. This is the story of three women who come to this place.

The first woman we meet is Marantha Waters (interesting name!), a 38 year old stricken with tuberculosis in 1888. Her family, her husband, her adopted daughter and a maid who is like another daughter to her, all move in to the "home" on the island, so they can tend the sheep. Promised by her husband this would be a healthful move for her, she soon realizes that it is not going to help her to be there at all, for a variety of reasons. The writing is amazing, transporting the reader, along with the Waters family, to a beautiful, yet seemingly God forsaken place to deal with dust storms, weather, sheep shearers and sneaking around in the small building they all must live in.

Marantha's daughter Edith is taken back to the island practically by force after her mother passes away. Edith is strong willed and yearning for independence from her step-father. She has her own unique experiences on the island, much of her time is spent scheming a way to get off the island.

We finally meet the Lester family who settle there in the 1930's, after the war to end all wars. Elise's husband is a damaged WW1 veteran, and the reader fears for the safety of the Lester family (they have two daughters n the island, eventually) the entire time spent with them. And the reader does very much have a sense of "knowing" San Miguel by the time the book finally ends.

This book is an emotionally exhausting roller coaster of a ride. Although the lens we see the island through is a female one (and Mr. Boyle does an excellent job with that lens), we feel we truly know all the people that live on the island: the hired help, the residents, the animals. And you will know the island, San Miguel. It was an important place in the history of our country as well as home to widely varying groups of people for many years.

4 stars

Off the coast of California lies the Channel Islands - a harsh, rainy, hilly piece of land suitable for raising sheep. It is called San Miguel. The author weaves a haunting tale about three women who lived their lives, or at least part of their lives, on the desolate little island.

Readers who pick up this book will soon realize that it is a character driven novel, where the author delves deep into the psyche of each woman portrayed. The details and inner thoughts and aspirations of these fascinating characters takes precedence over the plot. It is important to understand this so that readers will know why the plot seems slow. For this novel, it is important to relish the journey and revelations of the strong female characters.

The novel is broken into three parts. The first tells the story of Marantha whose struggle is her fast failing health with consumption (tubercoulosis) and her dislike for the island upon which her husband has taken her to earn a living as a sheep farmer. To make matters worse, the environment only worsens her health issues. This often brings out the worst in her. That author gives us a masterful insight into this fascinating woman and her thoughts as her life draws to an uncontrollable end.

The next part of the novel is about Edith, Marantha's step daughter. Like her stepmother, Edith dislikes life on the island and is desperate to break free and seek her own independence. Her youth fuels her desire for society and friends and all the occasions that come with it. Like Marantha, despite Edith's many failings, the author manages to evoke great sympathy and understanding.

The last part of the story focuses on a woman called Elise who finds life on the isolated island enjoyable, unlike the other two women. Her story takes us into the 1940's and a series of events that enhance the story's conclusion.

The author's strength is most definitely his ability to take us deep into the mindset and emotions of his characters. Although the story is fascinating and set within an intersting setting and era, the pace, at times, can become rather tedious if the reader is not first prepared. Nevertheless, this an interesting read and recommended for those who prefer character driven novels.

Inspired by historical records, T.C. Boyle tells the story of the Waters and Lester families during their respective tenures of San Miguel Island. Two brides, fifty years apart, journey to the tiny haven off the Californian coast in support of their husbands enthusiasm for its potential but the tiny windswept island resists the determined efforts of its tenants to tame it.

It is the landscape of San Miguel that takes precedence in this novel, the characters little more than visitors to a place that endures. Boyle captures the claustrophobic feeling of isolation of the rocky outcrop that can only be reached by boat. The author's use of language is rich and evocative, so much so that you imagine you can hear the seals bark and the sheep bleat plaintively as the wind howls and the waves crash upon the shore, despite your suburban surrounds.

The narrative of everyday life on the island, especially in a time barely remembered and a place unfamiliar is fascinating, but there is an absence of plot in San Miguel. Drama fails to eventuate, scenes and even characters rarely resolve. It's obvious Marantha will not survive long due to her advanced case of consumption, just as it is clear things are not going to end well for a manic depressive with a gun collection. I felt as though Marantha's and Elise's stories had merit but their scope was forcefully limited. At times Boyle exhibits great insight into the thoughts and emotions of the brides as they struggle with the challenges of island life, and their respective mercurial husbands. Yet I also felt the author was regularly distracted by the island itself, so that the entire novel lacks the cohesion I would have liked.

I haven't read anything else by TC Boyle but I am given to understand San Miguel is a departure from his usual style. Perhaps that explains the flaws in this novel but still I was appreciative of his style (despite the odd pretentious flourish) and hope to read something else of his soon.

T. C. Boyle writes about interesting people, often based on real people as in this novel, most often set in his native California, like the Channel Islands in his more recent novel, When the Killing's Done, and in this case San Miguel off Santa Barbara. There is a little bit of a history lesson embedded in his work, but never overbearing. The backstories underscore the human stories, and his people in one way or another struggle and love passionately and hurt deeply and reach out for more or suffer with demons... all the stuff that fills good fiction.

I have been a fan for many years and Boyle rarely disappoints. I prefer his novels to his stories, which are far more macabre although also often very funny, and he has published several collections.

San Miguel, published last fall [and finally got to the top of my pile] is quieter, far less irony or intricacy, as it profiles three women's lives, and the men in them, over sixty years on the deserted island. Not as big a plot punch as for example my personal favorites, Tortilla Curtain and Riven Rock, or the sophisticated history of Frank Lloyd Wright in The Women, but just as satisfying, because Boyle always writes with clarity and elegance and holds you as if he were telling you the story over a campfire. The descriptions of foliage and sky, animals and sea life, cliffs and trees, as well as people, are just plain mesmerizing.

Miranda arrives late in the 19th century with her stoic husband and adopted daughter in the hopes of a miracle cure for her tuberculosis; daughter Edith, a bit of a wild child, returns reluctantly, hostage to her stepfather until she can make her escape; and Elise arrives during the depression, and stays until WW II, a woman from east coast privilege who comes with her charismatic husband to embrace the simple life.

Each character has a different relationship with the island, which is much more of a character than landscape, and with the one person who knows them all: a lonely workhand named Jimmy.

If you would like to sink into a good old-fashioned novel with characters that quickly come to life and beautiful prose and a thoughtful view of so-called civilization, read San Miguel. Boyle is a modern-day Tolstoy, just a whole lot hipper. Visit his author page to see for yourself!

San Miguel is a beautifully written historical novel depicting the lives of two families as they come to live and work the sheep ranch on the titular remote island off the coast of California near Santa Barbara. Boyle wrote the story after researching many non fiction books and journals of two families who lived there-one family in 1888, and the other in 1930. In both cases, the husband is a war veteran, of the Civil War,and World WarI respectively.The first part of the book tells the story of the Waters family, husband, wife, teenage daughter, and 22 year old irish servant. Life is harsh, Marantha, the mother, is consumptive, her husband is often cruel and unfeeling, the teenage daughter very unhappy, the servant overworked. This part of the book is dark, and written in almost a gothic style. The second family, the Lesters, arrive as newlyweds, and eventually raise two daughters there. Their lives are more upbeat and positive, and this part of the book is lighter, and the reader is more able to appreciate the beauty of the island and the positive aspects of the lifestyle choice. Of course the 1930 and beyond experience is enhanced by better conveniences and more frequent connection/transpot with the mainland.

The island itself is also a character here, and the history of the two time periods adds to the story.

I like a book that challenges the reader in regard to perhaps sympathizing with characters that they don't particularly like, and this certainly delivers in that regard.A great book group discussion book!

Historical fiction is rarely this flawless, but many T. C. Boyle fans may find San Miguel a jarring departure from Boyle's usual rock-and-roll black humor. I've enjoyed the dark and wicked wit of Boyle's works, but everything I love best about Boyle is here. A chilling mastery of narrative distance, the omnipresent battle with nature red in tooth and claw, the harsh death of the Utopian dream, and characterization so all-consuming that I felt I had to tear myself loose from each central female character (Maranatha, Edith, and Elise) in turn.

I've often wondered what fictional magic would occur if Boyle expanded his inimitable short stories into novellas, giving the rich characterization a chance to really take hold. This novel is really a triptych of fully realized novellas, all sharing the same setting and one minor character. The reader faces the Boylean dilemma yet again. With everything rigged against us, including nature itself and our own human aspirations and limitations, how do people survive and achieve the good life? If we had reached the good life, would we even realize it?

Tough but rewarding read. While billed as "historical fiction" the tale is very close to the actual history of the Lester family on the island. You will love the irony of the Dept of the Interior surveying the overgrazing "damage" just before the Navy turns the island into a bombing range...only the Feds, eh? Now it is part of a national park, except you can't go there because of the live ordinance they are still cleaning up.

Part exploration of the human mind and part real life adventure, Boyle captures the reality of life in complete isolation and the beauty and hardship that can be found in that existence.

Synopsis: San Miguel chronicles the lives of 2 families who come to the island (off the coast of California) from their struggles, their failures and their triumphs while living on a very unforgiving island.

My rating: 4 Stars

My opinion: San Miguel is a prime example of why I love being a book reviewer. I have been introduced to so many wonderful new authors that had I not been a reviewer, I would more than likely never have come across. Although, TC Boyle is a famous author, my guess is that he is probably is that he would have stayed unknown to me had it wasn't offered on Netgalley.

San Miguel is told with such vivid imagery, from the scenery of the island to the characters, I couldn't "turn" away. Once I was able to finally get the book started, I couldn't put it down. The story flowed extremely well, maintained a tension that kept me on edge and paced incredibly well. This is one I could very easily see turned into a movie.

Readers who enjoy historical fiction that vividly brings to life a place and time are those most likely to enjoy T.C. Boyle's latest novel, San Miguel. The title refers to the island off Santa Barbara, California, where most of the action takes place in the 1880s and 1930s. Three female protagonists provide the grist for the novel as they struggle to make a good life in a harsh environment during challenging times. It took me a while to get settled into this novel, because in some ways Boyle was using a historical structure and style to fit the subject and setting. The dark humor and snappiness of his earlier novels is missing here, replaced by the intensity of island life. Unlike in earlier novels when I had to keep a dictionary handy while reading Boyle, this time I looked up only three words. Boyle is a great writer, and readers who enjoy literary and historical fiction are those most likely to enjoy this book.

Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended)

San Miguel is about an island off the Californian coast. The book begins in the 1880s, when Marantha Waters, a consumption sufferer, arrives with her second husband and her adopted daughter on the uninhabited island to look after the 5,000 sheep that live there. Marantha hates it there while her husband loves it. Later, the daughter tries anything to get off the island as her father keeps her there as a maid, working long hours and having no life of her own.

Many years later, in the 1930s, another family lives on the island, again to look after the (much diminished) stock of sheep. These are a young couple who do enjoy working and living there. During the Depression, they are well off on the island, as there is never any lack of food, but during the second world war, their tranquil life threatens to be disturbed both by the enemy Japanese and by the USA government.

I loved it how this novel took place on one of the Channel Islands near the Californian coast, because Boyle's previous book, When the Killing's Done, also took place there, albeit on a different island. I just love connections between books. Both islands are isolated, populated by animals and very exposed to the weather.

However, there the comparison ends. San Miguel is set a lot earlier than the previous novel, starting in the 1880s. This was a real women's book in my eyes, probably Boyle's first. With that I mean that I feel the themes will resonate better with women than with men, who might not be quite so interested in the lives of three different women (at different times) on the isolated island of San Miguel.

I didn't see the point of this book, unfortunately. Why did we get the stories of three women in three different periods? I didn't discover an overall story of the novel but rather, three (or at least, two) separate stories about the same island. The beginning was good and reminded me somewhat of The Light Between Oceans in which a couple moves to an island off the Australian coast in the 1920s to look after the lighthouse there. If you liked that book, you might enjoy reading San Miguel. There is the same sense of remoteness, of being reliant on a boat that may or may not arrive at certain times to deliver both goods and some other people to talk to. Also, there is a strong sense of the nature and the effects of the weather on living conditions.

I enjoyed the fact that the couple in the 1930s get to hear the further story of the earlier family, and thus, so does the reader. This explains certain things and gives the earlier story a link to the story in the 1930s.

A redeeming quality for when a story isn't quite so appealing can be the strength of writing. Alas, I did not think this book was of the same literary standards as Boyle's previous books. It was not an easy read, but definitely an easier read. Some people who found Boyle's previous books too heavy going, might like this book better. On the other hand, if you're used to Boyle's good quality literary fiction, I believe you may be a little disappointed here.

If I had read this book without knowing who wrote it, probably my last guess would've been T.C. Boyle. I re-read "Wellville" recently, and was again struck by how the male characters are treated as weak buffoons. This is the fourth book of his I've read, and it's the first real historical novel of the four. The others (World's End, East is East, Wellville) all seem to be about showing off how clever the author is and how stupid people can be--and isn't it fun to watch them slip and fall? Ha ha ha.

In "San Miguel," the men are once again making foolish plans and dragging their families along for the ride, but this time the author shows empathy for his characters. This is a book about the American Dream of a place of one's own, and how that dream can become a fatal delusion. Like the sodbusters before them, scratching out a living from the plains as the country grew westward, these two families take a chance on their dream. But this time out, Boyle is not up in his ivory tower laughing at the fools down below. Instead, he presents their story as clearly and truthfully as he can, leaving the reading to pass judgement (or not) and to share in their sorrows and joys.

This is a difficult book to read, due to the difficult lives of the people who tried to make a life out on the edge of the old frontier. But I'm glad I stuck with it. I look forward to Boyle's next work. I hope he continues in this new vein, writing historical fiction honestly, and with empathy.

San Miguel, a windswept, miserable, lonely island in the middle of nowhere, shapes the lives of three very different women in this beautiful example of Historical Literary fiction. This is not a romance and not a particularly plot-driven story, and while some traditional fiction readers may find this more of a meandering read, the bleak canvas of San Miguel is painted with a vivid depth of colour.

We know from the first chapter that our first storyteller, Marantha, isn't going to make it. She is dying of consumption, living a painful, guilt-ridden existence which her husband believes will be improved by moving their family to the fresh air of San Miguel. She's become a bitter, pinched creature, but TC Boyle dives into her twisted heart and finds the yearning she tries so hard to kill. On the island, Marantha's life worsens tenfold, and yet she finds in herself a resolve she's never known before.

Her daughter, Edith, will do anything to escape San Miguel. She watches her mother die, watches their lives fall apart, and refuses to allow her life to be squeezed into the same constraints. Her romantic nature takes her into the arms of an awkward boy who will never know more than San Miguel's harsh shore, and her impulsive nature leaves him behind to dream about her.

Fifty years later, Elise (unrelated to the other two women) moves to San Miguel with her husband, Lester, who loses his mind during their time spent on the island. She does all she can to maintain a normal, productive life, even bringing their family somewhat of a celebrity status when she shares their unconventional education of the couple's two daughters. Lester's insanity is fed by a burning need to feel useful, which he is not. When WWII approaches, his desperation drives him to a terrible end.

TC Boyle's prose is simply beautiful. His characters are powerfully honest and the settings are drawn with such impeccable detail it is impossible not to get sucked into all three stories. The reader is placed, whether they want it or not, on the lonely island of San Miguel. I, for one, both loved and hated the island, both pitied and raged at the characters. Boyle's gift is reaching so deep into the reader's mind and heart that it's impossible not to be affected.

TC Boyle has many writing talents. In this book he concentrates on the lives of people who have settled on the Channel Islands off the coast of California , near Santa Barbara. The time is just before and after World War 2. The Channel Islands have been a fascination for years by Scuba Divers interested in the marine life. This book is a major effort for TC Boyle in recreating that time.The 367 pages is all text, with the exception of a rough map at the beginning of the story. The rather hard life and isolation challenge the people throughout the book, particularly when the War begins. The ending is a surprise.

This book started out well but soon was filled with characters that were impossible to identify with in any way, including sympathy for their situation. The setting was perfect for a beautiful drama but fell short with confusing dialogue... story line. I could not finish it and that is rare for me.

T C Boyle's writing is utterly engaging. He draws his characters deeply, vividly, and empathetically. You get to know them. Their very personal life stories are set in the context of major cosmic issues - the hostility of nature intertwined with the hurt, brutality and warfare of humanity. And yet there is redemptive grace too, irrepressible joys, hospitality. Will Waters is totally in the grasp of the relentless familiar cycle of brutality. The war and the island's tough nature have brutalised him, and he cruelly brutalises Maranatha and Edith. His successor generation, Herbie Lester is war wounded rather than brutalised, and internalises this wound, though this still hurts the wife and daughters he loves. I wanted the book to finish because of the urge to know how the story ended, but I wanted it not to end since I'd so enjoyed feeling part of the event each day I read.

Geoff Crocker Editor Atheist Spirituality web site

The characters were so vivid. You had two women dying ...literally...to get off the island and another woman who just wanted to live there forever. I loved all the characters. Tonight I am starting The Women by Boyle. I am on a Boyle kick now. Terrific writer. I am not.

Who is reading this book and thinking it is great? It was repetitive, boring, uninspired.
Didn't care about the characters, they weren't well developed, nor was the plot.
Don't waste your money on this one.

My grandmother chastised me for spending full price on this book at a Barnes and Noble. "You should never pay the price on the flap," she said, offering to take me to Costco next Sunday to my my next read. I didn't mind, though. The book's cover is beautiful, so even before reading, it gave a nice look to my coffee table. I don't like the spine, though, designed to look like an engraved piece of driftwood. It took me a long time to get through and is much slower than Boyle's other books, but the multi-generational story came through in a convincing way. The desiccated landscape of the island home came through. The mess and the pain of these people's lives came through. The isolation and silt of their exile came through. I was there, waiting on the shore for supplies to arrive, hoping that the wind would mellow and the shearers would come to make us rich so we could go home.

Historical fiction very well done. The story is centered around an isolated sheep ranch on San Miguel island off the coast of California. Several generations of families arrive consecutively to manage the ranch and figure out how to survive the weather and loneliness and scarcity of goods and lack of communication with the outside world.

T.C.Boyle books always deliver rich imagery, books that really "take you there" so much so that I feel I know what its like living on San Miguel. His blend of fiction and non fiction is also wonderfully done, and this was a wonderful book to read.

A depressing read. There's very little joy in the life of these two families, especially the first family. The wife in the second family enjoys a few happy times, but her husband seems to be a bit manic-depressive. I only kept reading to see if any of the characters ever escaped their misery; there are no "happily-ever-afters" here.

This book was more expensive as a Kidle edition than a paperbook! I notice yoiur Kindle books are getting more expensive and are often more than the paperbacks or hardbacks. I will go back to regular books if this is to continue to be the case

This novel which follows the lives of two families separated by a period of about 30 years on a bleak island called San Miguel off the California coast reminded me of Steinbeck's “East of Eden”.

Like several of Boyle's other books – “Water Music”, “The Women” and “Road to Wellness”, for example – it is based on real people and events. The main characters are women and the story is seen from their points of view. It is an impressive piece of work, particularly the portrayal of the first settler, Marantha Waters, who is stricken with consumption and has to survive in a hostile environment with an unsympathetic husband. The narrative moves along at a steady pace over the years although, at times, it plods somewhat and becomes repetitive. Fans of Boyle may be a bit disappointed that the black humor that marks so much of his work is completely absent.