SOURCE: "James Michener's September Song," in Washington Post Book World, October 16, 1994, pp. 1, 18.

[In the following review, Lindbergh faults Michener's Recessional for its two-dimensional characters and predictable plot.]

The trouble with James Michener's latest novel may be that it is too true to its title. It seems odd to say this, because Michener's strength as an author so often lies in his faithful representation of whatever it is his titles tell us he has written about: Hawaii, Poland, Chesapeake. Most of his books concern themselves with specific pieces of geography, places one can find on the map. There is something both heartening and encompassing in sharing James Michener's view of life. We have a sense of taking in whole continents, and entire cultures, as well as the minutiae of one meadow in eastern Europe, or the awkward absurdity of a pelican in the Florida Everglade. Reading Michener at his...