Whereas a typical Michener novel focuses on a specific place from prehistory to the present, The Drifters is unique to the Michener canon in the sense that it focuses on a specific period, the late 1960s. As the tide suggests, the novel's setting changes constantly as Michener offers glimpses of various places as they existed at an isolated moment in history.
If Michener's primary intention in the novel is to capture the mood of America's youth during the Vietnam War, he provides valuable perspective by having his American characters intermingle with youth from Scandinavia, Israel, and Africa. Michener thus suggests that all youth worldwide, not just in America, were traveling abroad at the time in search of alternatives to traditional values. As the Americans travel through Europe and Africa with their newfound friends from abroad,.....
