San Miguel

Sep 04, 2012 Renae M. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, historical-fiction, published-2012

I've seen the multi-storied take on historical fiction before, most notably from Edward Rutherford. In general, I'm not a fan of that technique, because it tends to leave the individual narratives incomplete. That was the case here; Boyle presented two interesting stories that I liked in a general way, but each ended just as the conflict was coming to a head, and in the end I was left wanting more. The stories of Marantha/Edith and Elise/Herbie were both interesting, but Boyle never fully expand...more I've seen the multi-storied take on historical fiction before, most notably from Edward Rutherford. In general, I'm not a fan of that technique, because it tends to leave the individual narratives incomplete. That was the case here; Boyle presented two interesting stories that I liked in a general way, but each ended just as the conflict was coming to a head, and in the end I was left wanting more. The stories of Marantha/Edith and Elise/Herbie were both interesting, but Boyle never fully expanded on either. As a result, there was a definite feeling of lacking that I had while reading San Miguel.

The book begins with Marantha, a woman dying of tuberculosis in 1888, and her adopted daughter and god-awful husband. After Marantha dies, the reader follows Edith (Marantha’s daughter), as she struggles against her stepfather’s god-awfulness. Jump forward a few decades to 1930-ish, and we meet newly-married Elise and Herbie, who are extremely happy together. However, that quickly changes, as things take a very steep downward spiral.

Beyond that, I think that this is a rather depressing/dark novel, and certainly, the overall aftertaste is not a pleasant one. The reader knows from the outset that Marantha's story can only end in death, and while Edith's fate is slightly better, neither was her life a rose garden. The married life of Elise and Herbie started out promisingly, and for the hundred pages or so their story occupied, I was very engaged. However, the book's closing scene is one of the most horrendously upsetting endings I've read in a while, and it honestly ruined the book's entire atmosphere. I'm all for unhappy endings (they're actually my favorite type), but Boyle's ending was unexpected and ill-fitting to the novel as a whole.

I must say, though, that Boyle's prose is very good, if perhaps a bit florid in spots. It's obvious to me that this author has talent, and I think that the historical genre is a good fit for him. His choices in content, though, left quite a lot to be desired.

Boyle's characters also fell a bit flat for me, as I feel that the book only showed readers the outside of each character and not anything meaningful about their personalities or motivations. Because of that, I didn't get quite as invested in San Miguel as I would have liked.

Verdict: The premise and idea behind San Miguel seemed to be very promising. Yet in the end I don't think that T.C. Boyle managed to deliver the tale at he was capable of. Yet this isn't a bad book by any means, just one that I think could have been better.

*A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

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Sep 27, 2012 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. God bless you, T.C. Boyle & your wondrous, sweeping, swooping run-on sentences.

“It was anger – and despair, that too – that gave her the strength to strip the bedding and tear the curtains from their hooks, to ball them up and fling them on the floor for Ida, because what was he thinking, how could he ever imagine she’d regain her strength in a freezing hovel like this as if she were some sort of milkmaid in a bucolic romance?”

Or this: “She watched the sun rise out of the mountains down the...more God bless you, T.C. Boyle & your wondrous, sweeping, swooping run-on sentences.

“It was anger – and despair, that too – that gave her the strength to strip the bedding and tear the curtains from their hooks, to ball them up and fling them on the floor for Ida, because what was he thinking, how could he ever imagine she’d regain her strength in a freezing hovel like this as if she were some sort of milkmaid in a bucolic romance?”

Or this: “She watched the sun rise out of the mountains down the shoreline to her left, and that was strange too, because all her life she’d known it to emerge from the waters of Long Island Sound, a quivering yellow disk like the separated yolk of an egg, the waves running away to the horizon and shifting from black to gray and finally to the clean undiluted blue of the sky above – if the sun was shining, that is.”

No one can do it like you, T.C., when you're on you're so totally on, and I love you for it. Thanks a lot.

This book revisits the island of San Miguel, a looming character of sorts in the background of Boyle's last novel When The Killing's Done. This is told from the 1880s perspective of Marantha Waters & then her daughter Edith, as they follow Marantha's husband to the island so he can run a sheep ranching operation & also, hopefully, so Marantha will be cured of her consumption. Spoiler - she's not. After her death, teenage Edith is taken out of school & forced back to the island by her stepfather, where he can keep an eye on her. Here's the thing, though, stepfather of Edith - if you treat teenage girls like prisoners because you don't want them cavorting with boys, they will do anything in their power, up to & including cavorting with boys, in order to get out from under your thumb. Then the book shifts to the 1930s and Elise Lester & her husband taking over the sheep ranch & their lives as the "Swiss Family Lester" out in the middle of nowhere with their eventual children.

Elise's part was the hardest to read because it frankly got sort of boring. While Marantha hates the island & is coughing up blood & being dramatic all the time, & Edith hates the island too & is woeful & impassioned as only teenage girls can be (and willing to resort to some pretty painful things to get away), Elise's life is idyllic & happy & routine. Her husband Herbie appears to be bipolar but other than a few mentions of him being "blue" he's a lot more about the happy mania than anything. Sadly though, Elise ends up being the most profound story of all. Sometimes I'm pretty naive & I will ignore foreshadowing, so I admit I was a little shocked when I finally realized what poor Herbie was up to. The novel ends thus: ”She knew that luck gave out. And she knew that there was nothing to keep, nothing to hold on to, that it all came to nothing in the end," & if that doesn't make you want to cry a little & go give someone you love a hug, than I don't know what will.
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Jan 02, 2013 sarah corbett morgan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love TC Boyle's writing. Now that I have that disclaimer out of the way, let me just say that, again, Boyle has written a stunner. He seems to have become infatuated with the Channel Islands, that low-lying chain of small land masses off the southern California coast. (His last book, When the Killing's Done, was set on one of those islands, as well.)

This historical novel is told from the perspective of three generations of women of San Miguel, starting in the late 19th Century. You might be a...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Brian Gluckman rated it 3 of 5 stars

San Miguel is essentially two-and-a-half books in one, detailing the lives of two different families--and three different women--on the island. An historical novel loosely bases off the stories of real people, the potential seems high in Boyle's capable hands. The unfortunate issue is that these two sets of stories differ significantly in overall quality. The first feels pulled from a bad romance novel, with characters who feel like cardboard cutouts, despite being based on real people. The seco...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-are, provided-by-publisher

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 th...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Well researched and well written - and a good read. Based on the lives of two real families in two different time periods who tried their hand at pioneering on San Miguel Island – a desolate, deserted spot off the California coast – it was like reading a double novel in one.

Told from the viewpoint of the women who lived there, the first half of the book is set in the late 1800’s, and the second part takes place in the 1930’s. There were similar elements in both stories – the surprisingly harsh...more

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May 02, 2013 Cindy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

The island, San Miguel, becomes a character in this historical fiction novel. I found that the island contributed or enhanced the feeling of claustrophobia that the first narrator felt, the feeling of incarceration that the second woman felt and finally the feeling of freedom from the third women.
After reading this novel I decided to do a little of my own research. I became impressed at the way this author stayed very close to the historical records that have been previously published but bre...more

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May 17, 2013 Beth Camp marked it as to-read

Giving this another try. Currently on page 44. Still very grim opening. Woman who has consumption, now isolated and completely dependent on her husband. Doesn't bode well for Marantha.

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Feb 27, 2013 Steve lovell rated it 4 of 5 stars

San Miguel, the setting for the Boylster's latest, is an island. Have a look at the author’s portrait inside the back cover of this tome, and, dear reader, you will see why your humble scribe calls him the Boylster. What a dude! As I read this book it seemed to lead me to conjure up all those 'islands in the stream' of my life. Of course, my whole existence is an island experience. I never thought I would see out my days contentedly on this exquisite place, surrounded by the southern seas. I alw...more San Miguel, the setting for the Boylster's latest, is an island. Have a look at the author’s portrait inside the back cover of this tome, and, dear reader, you will see why your humble scribe calls him the Boylster. What a dude! As I read this book it seemed to lead me to conjure up all those 'islands in the stream' of my life. Of course, my whole existence is an island experience. I never thought I would see out my days contentedly on this exquisite place, surrounded by the southern seas. I always felt the my latter life would be, as Graeme Connors signature song suggests, one of 'moving a little further north each year,' preferably up the littoral of Mangoland. Thanks to a wonderful woman, and her perfectly imperfect small abode by a river, that hasn't eventuated. My island is far bigger than the one TC writes of, as is that tropical one I long to return to, an island where beauty abounded everywhere one looked - the women, the kids, the paddy fields, the beaches and, best of all, the smiles. But again, Bali is far bigger, as well, than San Miguel, off the Californian coast.

As my reading of the book was nearing its termination, out comes the Weekend Australian with a 'special' on islands off the Australian Coast. Now these were more like it, these were more akin to the dimensions of Boyle's decidedly non-paradisiacal island. The ‘Oz’ for me is a Saturday ritual, and its magazine section featured Rottnest (a lovely piece by Robert Drewe), North Stradbroke, the Tiwis, the Cocos(Keeling), and culminating with Tasmania. No, not the big island itself; but some of the off shore component parts. Those noted were windswept King; the island of tears in Flinders; Maria, with its eclectic history; and the one I adore, Bruny. I guess the one featured most resembling San Mig would be Schouten, off the East Coast's Freycinet Peninsula, now deserted, but with a history akin to TC's speck in the sea. Today, Three Hummock and Hunter, off the North West tip would most equate. But the place I couldn't get out of my mind as I happily ploughed my way through this terrific tale, was much, much smaller than all of these; and than San Miguel to boot. And it was a photo, an image of a residence that did it. The two sand blasted homesteads featured in Boyle's diptych of a tale, were almost characters in themselves, so vital were they to the island survival of the Lesters and the Waters.

The Iron Pot is a tiny, tiny piece of rock where Storm Bay transforms into the entrance to the Derwent estuary. It has room for a lighthouse, the first or second structure of its type in Australia, depending on definition, and the double story keeper's house. I suppose the reason it stuck in my mind was that keeper's quarters looked so incongruous in size to its small knob of land, surrounded by sea. As well, if you look carefully, dear reader, you can see people in this old photograph. Have a look below – does it not all seem out of scale; out of place to you as well? Anyway, when I imagined Boyle's two dwellings, this is the place I saw in my mind. Once the book was satisfactorily completed it was off to the ether I went. Perhaps I should have been looking for the gen on San Mig, but what the book did was twig my fancy about the Iron Pot. We know what it was like living on Boyle's island, but I was interested in those people on the tiny Tasmanian islet - what was it like living out there? I suspect it was not as isolated a station as the Californian island, for Hobart was just up river, and it was possible to decamp at any time with the amount of shipping going by.. The light had been 'manned' since the early days of settlement, with two convicts and an overseer the first permanent residents; living in tents – and Storm Bay does live up to its name! Can you imagine the hardship? In 1862 it became the site of the world's briefest gold rush. One Saturday news spread around the taverns of Hobart Town that the keeper of the light had found some 'colour' in a seam of quartz on his rocky outcrop. In a town economically suffering from, and being depopulated by, the rushes on the mainland, this was hearty news indeed and two hundred souls rushed, by any means available, down to the Iron Pot. By Sunday it was ascertained there was no more gold to be had other than the keeper's, and by the start of a new week they were all home, snug, if miffed, back in the city.

The Pot’s living quarters were constructed in 1885, and survived one destructive maelstrom after another until demolition in 1921. In this year the light was automated and its human occupants decommissioned. Is he in the old photo of my mind, Robert Roberts, who fathered of the only child born on the island – Essie Margaret? In my bones I know there is a good story there in that intriguing image. Details on-line are scant, but I know there's a book to be had on the history of the Iron Pot, and I will seek it out – that is my intention.

But let us return to the Boylster's tome. It is a very fine rendering from man who, in his wordsmithery, is the consummate yarn spinner. The initial section deals with the first family, the Lesters, followed by one centring on their headstrong, wilful and very bored, put upon daughter, Edith. This made for sublime reading. San Miguel was no starveacre place; a decent living could be made, but the place was not without its vicissitudes when Marantha, and her husband, the Captain – a Civil War vet – lived there. Marantha was terminally ill, and the happenings on the island, such as they were, are related from her point of view. He was a driven man, answering to his demons, determined to succeed regardless of the cost, human or otherwise.

Coming along much later, there were not so many privations for the Waters, and for a while, till Pearl Harbour takes the focus away, they achieve a notoriety of sorts for their hermit like existence. Herbie is what we would now term as bipolar, but wife Marianne loved her life, and belated motherhood, on the island. Her two female predecessors loathed their incarceration. The only weakness, I felt, in the whole book was the lack of a substantial linkage between the families. A minor character, Jimmy, living all his years on San Mig, or thereabouts, was a teenage farm hand for the Lesters, and an ageing sheep herder for the Waters. He provides our answers as to what became of Edith – fame with carpetbaggery thrown in, it seems – but the final third seemed too much an anticlimax. Perhaps the narrative needed not a change in dynasty. Boyle would no doubt counter that the story is the island, rather than the people inhabiting it.

But, being the Boylster, his language sings like a San Miguel fall breeze, and the 'busy tedium' of island life, in his hands, is as compelling as a Hitchcockian opus. His command of the vernacular is spectacular as he scours for the perfect word; the perfect phrase. I am an avid devotee, always in awe. I will construct a story from my research on the Iron Pot in due course, but it will be a few pages of scribblings compared to his 350 plus on his Pacific coast location. But I am sure on that wind basted rock at the mouth of the Derwent there are people, as pictured, who have stories to tell too - and I will have a go at some form of imagining. I am not a great author like Boyle – but the pleasure of spinning a cogent tale resides deep inside me, just as, no doubt, it does for the Boylster
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Jan 27, 2013 Pamela rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am a fan of T.C. Boyle, having read almost everything he’s read. His writing style is truly brilliant, his way with words never ceases to amaze me.

I think he is getting more experimental with his stories - - this one is, as usual, beautifully written, but it really has no plot. It is more of a fictional historical narrative, a “genre” that we don’t see much of, although I must say that Mary Doria Russell also did a wonderful job with it in some of her stories (most recently “Doc”). I kept loo...more I am a fan of T.C. Boyle, having read almost everything he’s read. His writing style is truly brilliant, his way with words never ceases to amaze me.

I think he is getting more experimental with his stories - - this one is, as usual, beautifully written, but it really has no plot. It is more of a fictional historical narrative, a “genre” that we don’t see much of, although I must say that Mary Doria Russell also did a wonderful job with it in some of her stories (most recently “Doc”). I kept looking for a plot, a storyline, and when I discovered that there really wasn’t one, I was OK with it because the narrative works so well.

This is the story of two families that really don’t intersect at all. They live on the remote island of San Miguel (in the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, CA) about 40 years apart, and have very different approaches to living on this harsh, windy, rather miserable little piece of land where they both manage a sheep ranch.

Told from the perspectives of women (which Boyle does a great job of …), the stories are about perseverance in the face of challenges. In 1880, Marantha Waters arrives on the island with her husband, teenage daughter, and a servant girl. Marantha is dying of consumption and her misery is brutal, and yet so fascinating. Her teenage daughter is also miserable and is anxious to escape this island life.

In the second story, beginning in 1930, Elise Lester is newly married and moves to the island with her husband. She is happy, loves the rugged lifestyle, and has two children whom she raises on the island. For the most part, this family lives happily until the media discovers them, and also until her husband’s bipolar personality causes problems.

There are many themes that are at play here. The novel could be about the dichotomy of different attitudes, about unique people who face similar challenges in different ways. Or, it could be about the impermanence of life in general. Then again, they could be considered period pieces, representing the lifestyle challenges of their respective eras.

Regardless of what this book about, it is a pleasure to read as T.C. Boyle’s ways with words is excellent; as I read it, I was truly out on that island with the characters. I didn’t want it to end.

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Jan 16, 2013 Laura Anthony rated it 5 of 5 stars

"San Miguel" is based on two families that lived on the island as sheep ranchers. In 1888 the Waters family, Marantha Waters, her husband, adopted daughter Edith, and hired girl Ida, sail to the island full of hope. Marantha is consumptive but the move to the island proves to be anything but the restorative idyll she had envisioned. Harsh weather, primitive living quarter, and boredom make life on the island increasingly difficult for Marantha and Edith. Captain Will Waters is unyielding in his...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Lori L (She Treads Softly) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Author T. C. Boyle said of San Miguel in the Wall Street Journal, “It’s something I’ve never done before. A straight historical narrative ... without irony, without comedy. ... Just to see if I can do it.” Personally, I don't think it was ever in doubt that he could do it. San Miguel is a historical novel that takes place on San Miguel, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of California. This is historical fiction based on the lives of two real families who resided on San Miguel. As noted "I...more Author T. C. Boyle said of San Miguel in the Wall Street Journal, “It’s something I’ve never done before. A straight historical narrative . . . without irony, without comedy. . . . Just to see if I can do it.” Personally, I don't think it was ever in doubt that he could do it. San Miguel is a historical novel that takes place on San Miguel, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of California. This is historical fiction based on the lives of two real families who resided on San Miguel. As noted "In retelling the story of the Waters and Lester families during their time on San Miguel Island, I have tried to represent the historical record as accurately as possible, and yet this is a work of fiction, not history, and dialogue, characters and incidents have necessarily been invented." It is divided into three sections and follows three different women who live there.

In the 1880's, Marantha Waters, who suffers from tuberculosis, arrives at San Miguel for the cleansing air that will make her well. Her new husband, Will has spent the last of her money buying the sheep operation on the island - which will ostensibly benefit her health. Boyle's descriptions of Marantha's coughing, gasping for air, and suffering are very detailed as she fights for her every breath on the desolate wind and sand blasted island. After she dies her daughter, Edith, is essentially turned into a servant by her stepfather and held captive on the island. She dreams of escape. Finally, Boyle introduces us to newlyweds Elise and Herbie Lester, who arrive on the island In 1930. They are decidedly in love and raise two daughters on San Miguel. Elise and Herbie establish a way of life, making peace with the island, although their story is bittersweet in the end.

My first thought after finishing San Miguel is that T. C. Boyle wrote these women characters very realistically. He has a natural insight into their thoughts and feelings. This is especially true with Marantha and Edith, less so with Elsie. I did want to learn more of what became of Edith, as her story on the island was truncated by her escape, although I understand that once she left the island,she was no longer part of this story.

My second thought is that this is an atmospheric novel; there is not wildly active plot. Boyle relies on the mundane activities of everyday life as shaped by the island's isolation and location for the drama. But, the limitations and challenges the island and weather impose on the characters makes the island a character in its own right. The characters have to react to the island.

I thought this was a highly successful venture into historical fiction for a writer who is not known for this genre. Certainly the quality of the writing itself is exemplary.

Very Highly Recommended

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of the Penguin Group and Netgalley for review purposes.
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Oct 23, 2012 Jenny Shank rated it 3 of 5 stars

http://www.hcn.org/issues/44.17/entra...

Suffering and freedom in a microcosm: A review of San Miguel
REVIEW - From the October 15, 2012 issue of High Country News
By Jenny Shank

California writer T.C. Boyle's 14th novel, San Miguel, continues his exploration of the Channel Islands, off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., which began with last year's When The Killing's Done. This time, Boyle focuses on windswept San Miguel Island and the histories of two very different families who inhabit it betwee...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Vicky rated it 4 of 5 stars

T.C. Boyle writes his own unique brand of historical fiction (fictional history). I have read two of his previous books--The Road to Wellville and The Inner Circle--and enjoyed them both, but I really liked San Miguel. I was intrigued when I saw an ad in The Atlantic since it is set on San Miguel, one of the 5 Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA. I have visited Santa Cruz, another of these beautiful, isolated islands that now comprise Channel Islands National Park and Marine Sanct...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

SAN MIGUEL. (2012). T. C. Boyle. ***.
Mr. Boyle latest book once again has taken reality and infused it with enough fiction to make it into that category of art imitating life. Having recently finished reading “Little House on the Prairie,” I was reminded by this book of a retitled work called “Little House on the Island.” This work is set on the island of San Miguel, the northern-most island of the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California. It features the adventures of two families...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Barbara Burd rated it 4 of 5 stars

San Miguel Island is the strongest character in this novel. The island is seen through the eyes of three different women, who lived on the island during different time periods. Marantha is a consumptive who comes to the island with her demanding husband in the hopes of finding better air quality and a healthier environment to heal her disease. The rugged terrain and lifestyle, along with a controlling husband, set out to defeat her, but she fights for survival, mostly in hopes that she can chang...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

T. C. Boyle has masterfully created a novel based on the real lives of two couples and their children who resided, 50 years apart, on San Miguel, one of several islands off the California coast near Santa Barbara. The conditions on the island differed somewhat for the two families because of improvements in the housing there and modes of transportation generally during the period between their times on the island. Differences of physical and mental health also impacted the characters' experience...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Allyson Batis rated it 5 of 5 stars

After I finished "San Miguel" I just sat and reflected on it. I had other books to read, and the plot is straightforward- there was no need to puzzle out any threads to figure out the ending. It has been a long time since a book has made me feel so intensely that I needed some time to reflect on the book and how it makes me feel.

I am biased. I like Boyle. This book has many qualities I like in books- historical fiction that doesn't prettify or demean the era, women who stand up to men and who ar...more

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May 19, 2013 Will Lock rated it 5 of 5 stars

T.C. Boyle is one of my favorite authors, and San Miguel, his latest, did not disappoint. I will say that he has worked a couple of veins for about all they can yield without becoming tiresome. The first of those is biographical narratives, particularly those of a few linked women. The Women (dealing with Frank Lloyd Wright’s wives) was great, and San Miguel, dealing with the lives of three historical women linked by an island, is also beautifully done. But I’m ready to move on. And San Miguel a...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Val Wilkerson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-books-read

This book takes place on San Miguel, the northern most of the Channel Islands (off Santa Barbara) and starts in about the 1880's. In part 1 Marantha and her husband Will, along with their adopted daughter move out to the Island, where sheep are being raised and its Will's desire to go out as a caretaker and eventually buy into the business. San Miguel is barren, in fact treeless, due to its wind exposure, poor soil, fog. They are dependent on boats to bring out supplies, fresh vegetables, and th...more

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May 10, 2013 Randy rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 suf...more 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 at 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. Read his backlist! Learn more at www.tcboyle.com.
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May 10, 2013 Kristine Brancolini rated it 5 of 5 stars

San Miguel tells the fictionalized story of two families that lived on the northern-most Channel Island off the coast of Santa Barbard, California -- San Miguel. The two families could not have been more different and their overall experiences diverged, but they also had some commonalities. Boyle tells the story through three women: Marantha Waters, who arrived on San Miguel on January 1, 1888; her teenage daughter Emily; and Elise Lester, a librarian from New York City who came to the island as...more San Miguel tells the fictionalized story of two families that lived on the northern-most Channel Island off the coast of Santa Barbard, California -- San Miguel. The two families could not have been more different and their overall experiences diverged, but they also had some commonalities. Boyle tells the story through three women: Marantha Waters, who arrived on San Miguel on January 1, 1888; her teenage daughter Emily; and Elise Lester, a librarian from New York City who came to the island as a newly-wed in 1930. At the heart of the three stories is two men, Marantha's husband, a controlling and humorless Civil War veteran, "Captain Waters;" and Elise's husband, a shell-shocked World War I veteran, Herbie Lester. The Waters lived on the island, tending sheep, for a relatively brief time, but the Lesters lived on the island for 12 years and raised two daughters there. The women tell the story, but the men are in many ways the most interesting characters. Interesting in a scary way.

Marantha suffered from tuberculosis and was probaby dying when her husband persuaded her to buy into a sheep farm on San Miguel and move and her daughter (his step-daughter) there. Basically Captain Waters lied to Marantha about conditions on the island and the probability that it would a more healthful environment for her. She is shocked and dismayed to discover that she has moved to a windswept rock, isolated from society by the ocean and 26 miles, where she will be living in a rough-hewn barracks. Her daughter has no school and no companions, except for a young boy who works on the sheep ranch. Reading about San Miguel is thrilling and Boyle's prose captures the stark beauty of the place, but living there would have been pure torture.

Part 2 is the shortest section of the book and recounts Emily's captivity as her step-father's servant and cook. She had grown up in San Francisco and dreamed of a life on the stage. Moving to San Miguel put that dream on hold but Emily was determined to escape the island and realize her professional goals.

Part 3, narrated by Elise Lester presents another view of San Miguel. Granted, she came to the island nearly 40 years after the Waters lived there and living conditions were less primitive. However, she came hopefully, with her eyes open about what she would find. Also, she is in love and ripe for adventure. Marantha just wanted the peaceful, gentle life she left behind in San Francisco. She hoped to regain her health, but when the reality of the situation set in, she thought only of getting off the island. Elise embraced life on San Miguel and her husband became known at the King of San Miguel. But Herbie fought his own demons. He had massive mood swings, which came as a surprise to Elise, who married Herbie without knowing him for long. During World War II life on San Miguel changes forever.

I was most fascinated by the contrast between Marantha and Elise. Tuberculosis must be a horrible disease. It seems obvious that Marantha has changed considerably from the young woman she once was. At 38 she is seriously ill, humorless, and trying to cope with both her physical situation and the realization that her husband has sold her out for the chance to own a business. And this is all a true story. Take a look online for what happened to Marantha's daughter Emily, who eventually took the stage name Inez Deane. Truth is stranger than fiction. Elise was intelligent and stable, in love with a man who changed her life for the better. But Herbie had been wounded in the war and in addition to lingering physical effects, he suffered from what we would now call PTSD. He was violent and unpredictable; even once Elise figured out what was going on, she did all that she could to provide a stable and loving environment for Herbie and her children.

I live south of the Channel Islands across from Santa Catalina. These islands are both mysterious and lonely. Beautiful and harsh. I cannot imagine living on an otherwise uninhabited island, even today, with modern communication methods. This book reminded me of other books where men took their wives and families to remote and often dangerous places, such as The Mosquito Coast, The Poisonwood Bible, and the non-fiction book Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonght. I'm fascinated by the women who would go along with these crazy plans, placing themselves and their children at risk. However, I admit that 26 miles off the coast of California is nowhere near as remote as the locales of those other three books. San Miguel probably seemed like a safe place to escape to an adventure.

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Dec 19, 2012 Caren rated it 4 of 5 stars

An absorbing realist vision of the interconnected lives of three women eking out a living on the sheep ranch on this Channel Island in California. Each woman's inner life is remarkably distinct from the others even though the conditions of their physical lives are quite similar, and in this way Boyle presents a thoughtful anatomy of attitudes toward nature and environmental concerns--definitely one of his most frequent preoccupations in other work. Part of the appeal of remote, spartan condition...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Even if for no other reason, I appreciate T.C. Boyle for his ability to write genuinely about women. His newest novel, San Miguel, is a perfect example, a revelation of history, environment, and social mythology told through the lens of female experience. While all the characters are deeply explored and fully manifested, Boyle’s unique genius is his ability to surmount the representational nature of ‘woman’ while still installing his protagonists firmly in a place and time. In addition, his natu...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Chris Gager rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just started last night. Interesting to see how Boyle picks his subjects. No doubt this book is related to "When the Killing's Done" and the little foxes make an appearance early in this book. I guess you could call this small-scale historical fiction...

Well into the story now. It's very much a 19th century thing where a woman sacrifices her money and her health for the "vision" of a driven but immature and self-absorbed man. Marantha should have taken her money and her daughter to Tucson instea...more Just started last night. Interesting to see how Boyle picks his subjects. No doubt this book is related to "When the Killing's Done" and the little foxes make an appearance early in this book. I guess you could call this small-scale historical fiction...

Well into the story now. It's very much a 19th century thing where a woman sacrifices her money and her health for the "vision" of a driven but immature and self-absorbed man. Marantha should have taken her money and her daughter to Tucson instead of to the place which will almost certainly be the death of her - she has consumption/TB. Culturally fostered and entrenched co-dependency... The woman sees her life through the activities of her provider and protector and is vulnerable to his self-serving B.S. and thus convinces herself to comply with her own destruction. But I have to admit I don't know the end of the story yet so I COULD be mistaken. As ever TCB is a capable story teller and not a particularly thrilling writer. Not a Nabokov but then who is? "Captain" Waters is a textbook self-absorbed, immature, restless striver and destroyer. Capitalist wanna-be achiever... His treatment of Edith is abominable. He seems to think it's OK!

I'll finish tonight. So far pretty engrossing as we segue from the Waters' story to the Lesters 40 years later. I looked up Inez Deane but got nowhere. I assume that Edith turned into a real actress but maybe TCB made that part up. You KNEW you'd hear more about her in the Lester story. There're a few problems here: the repetitiveness of the two stories. When the second one begins we already know about what the physical challenges of the island are about. The author doesn't seem to want to follow up on the craziness of Herbie the manic depressive gun nut. The wife seems pretty content so far. Notes:

Virginia Woolf novel about shell shock... Mrs. Dalloway I think.

Hardy's novels were too sexy for Edith to read! How things change.

Now finished after last night. A good job by TCB as usual. The second story was getting kind of pedestrian and I was a bit wearied by Herbie's relentless weirdness and obnoxiousness but the author did a good job in creating some sympathy for him and the ending was traumatic of course. Now I'm going to read the Wiki page about San Miguel... 3.75* rounds up to 4.

I've gotten a bit more Edith Waters info. It's on the Wiki page for Nicholas C. Creede, a Colorado mining baron(there's a town named after him) who adopted Edith's/Inez/Ynez's daughter. No name changing by TCB. It looks like Edith's continuing story might be worth a book too. She eventually took back her Waters name(and her daughter) and indeed had been adopted herself by Marantha when she was still the widow Mrs. Scott. It goes on...(less)

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Dec 14, 2012 Dawn rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. SPOILER ALERT****I'm a huge T.C. Boyle fan as his books are normally so engrossing in characterization and development over the span of the story. In this case though, San Miguel is very disappointing. It seems more like some short story ideas thrown together to form a novel. I'm not a short story fan, so perhaps that's why I liked this book less than his others. This book was supposed to be more about the island life and the isolation than about the characters, perhaps. I was very intrigued by...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed this story of two families on the island of San Miguel. San Miguel is the western most chanell island off the coast of California. The first part of the story is told by "consumptive" (tuberculosis sufferer) Marantha . Marantaha and her husband and child move to the island for a new start and it's Virginal air- which supposedly will help her condition. Much to her dismay the opposite is true. I thought it was a very realist telling of the harsh conditions and what life would have been li...more

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Oct 05, 2012 g rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: californiana

After reading When the Killing's Done and a handful of various other stories by T.C. Boyle, I'd pegged him as a Jonathan Franzen-type: whip smart, invested in current events, darkly humorous, satirical, and all too ready to lord it over and roast his characters any chance he gets--in short, the type of writer who exhausts and ultimately irritates me. But this novel, San Miguel, "makes an ass[of]u[and]me." In it Boyle displays the nuance, empathy, and craft of some of the best Western writers: S...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, historical-fiction

I found this read to be a story that covers the trial and tribulations of a few characters, families, you are taken through their life of loss and love successfully by this author.
One female protagonist whom breaks free from one life and sets up across the country to a new dwelling an island with hopes of a long lasting happiness with a family finds that she’s no more at home in her finally days there as when she first set foot in the new environment. Hard times are come to fruition, the depress...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreads-giveaway, fiction, literary, literature, america, historical-fiction

In the end I quite liked it. But it did take a while to warm to it — that didn't happen until about a quarter of the way through.
I didn’t really appreciate until much further along that so much of it is based on historical events on the island of San Miguel, one of the Channel Islands across from Santa Barbara in California. Windy, often fogbound, cold, wet and isolated, it was a harsh environment for the sheep ranching family that tried to make a go of it in the late 1800s. They are the subject...more In the end I quite liked it. But it did take a while to warm to it — that didn't happen until about a quarter of the way through.
I didn’t really appreciate until much further along that so much of it is based on historical events on the island of San Miguel, one of the Channel Islands across from Santa Barbara in California. Windy, often fogbound, cold, wet and isolated, it was a harsh environment for the sheep ranching family that tried to make a go of it in the late 1800s. They are the subject of the first part of the book.
Marantha Waters was a consumptive who thought she was escaping city air to breathe in the healing fresh Pacific air, so she hopefully accompanied her second husband with their adopted teenage daughter to their new adventure on the island. The book opens with “She was coughing, always coughing, and sometimes she coughed up blood. The blood came in a fine spray, plucked from the fibers of her lungs and pumped full of air as if it were perfume in an atomizer.” They are taking over the sheep ranching duties from another family. There are no other families on the island, only them and some ranch hands, the hired help. Nothing has prepared them for how hard their life will be — the decrepit shack that will be their home, the poor diet rich only in mutton and seafood, the exhausting work required just to eke out a subsistence living. They are not prepared for how destructive the isolation can be. This would be hard enough for a fit person to deal with, but Marantha is in no shape for it with her frequent relapses of TB.

The second part of the book is about another lone family living on the island 40 years later, through the Depression and into the Second World War. The characters are more sharply defined here than those of the first family; this part of the book was a lot more enjoyable and interesting. It is here that I finally figured out that these stories are steeped in fact. The “Swiss Family Lester” was profiled in Life Magazine back in 1940. http://books.google.ca/books?id=xj8EA... .
MGM used the island to film the Pitcairn Island scenes of Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935. The original story of this family, The Legendary King of San Miguel , was written by the wife in 1974, and one of the daughters also wrote a memoir; both were used by Ford as source material.
San Miguel is now a National Park.
This was an ARC from Penguin via Goodreads Giveaway.(less)

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