[In the following obituary, Krebs discusses Michener's work and comments on his expert documentation and narrative ability.]

[In the following obituary, Simon discusses Michener's amazing success and popularity with his readers, despite the criticism of reviewers.]

[In the following obituary, Omicinski lauds Michener's life and works.]

[In the following review, Barich praises Michener's memoir, The World Is My Home, as a "Horatio Alger story," both entertaining and touching.]

James Michener's long and earnest novels … have not been found worthy of even the most casual mention in serious studies of contemporary American fiction, and neither do they appear on college-literature reading lists. None of this has made a particle of difference to his readers…. Michener's panoramic chronicles are a very different breed of fiction from the classic schlock … that ordinarily hogs the best-seller list, for Michener's novels are short on sex and long...

[In the following obituary, Barnes gives an overview of the author's works, calling him a "gifted storyteller, with a panoramic vision."]

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

[In the following obituary, Elizondo calls Michener's works entertaining and inspiring.]

[In the following review, Wolitzer finds that Michener's melodramatic Recessional pales in comparison to his poignant The World Is My Home.]

It's easy enough to be condescending toward James Michener, and over the years many reviewers have been exactly that. His long, plodding novels are high on sincerity, low on literary merit. The history he serves in such massive helpings tends to arrive at the table half-baked…. Yet Mr. Michener deserves more respect than he usually gets. Granted that he is not a stylist and that he smothers his stories under layers of historical and ecological trivia, nonetheless he has earned his enormous pop...

In all his previous work James A. Michener's point of origin is the beginning of things…. Locale, therefore, dominates the action of his story and the development of character, a tendency indicated by the titles of his major novels. There is a brooding presence of landscape, a Hardyesque sense of determinism subjecting even the strongest of his people to a fate beyond their control.