Book Review: The Source, by James A. Michener (1965)

Cover of "The Source"
Cover, via Amazon

I recently finished reading an amazing book about Israel and Jewish history, written over 20 years before I was born. The Source, by James A. Michener, is a thick tome spinning an intricate web of fictional stories spread out through the realistic history of a fictional tel1 called Makor (Hebrew for ‘source’) near Acre, in what is now Israel. In retrospect, I probably should have kept a reading diary, because there are so many things in this book I would like to comment on.

The book begins with a frame story, which it returns to briefly again and again between short stories, each spanning a few years; the first takes place some 11 thousand years ago, then they progress through the history of Makor and the scions of one family, skipping millennia, centuries, or decades at a time, to create a coherent chain of stories ending in a young, pre-1967 Israel. The main topics are the evolution of religion and civilization, the persecution of Hebrews, and the development of modern rabbinical Judaism and later, Zionism.

I don’t know where exactly Michener got his information, but it’s evident throughout the book that he really did his research. This is history done better than real history ever could be; the narrator knows things that can’t be known, carefully drawing connections between stories that at first seem connected only because they take place in or near Makor. The early stories – where I assume Michener had to rely on intuition, creative license, and the anthropological literature of his era – are fascinating, although even without knowing much about anthropology I got the impression that his theory must be outdated; for one, the relationship he describes between male and female in the stone age is basically the same as that which was the norm throughout history before feminism. In contrast, I’ve heard many different educated assertions that the agricultural revolution radically changed this relationship in some way or another.

The storytelling itself is magnificent, and in 1,000 pages, Michener managed to better get across to me the history of the Jewish people than my rather Jewish education could in 8 years. (Of course, I also approached this book with a more positive, open attitude than I ever approached my pre-Sudbury schooling with.) All in all, I feel much enriched for having read this novel, and there are certain ideas and attitudes I grew up exposed to that I don’t think I ever properly understood before. Take the concept of “in every generation, they rise up to destroy us” (a line sung on Passover); with the Israeli fixation on the Holocaust, the strange and cruel sequence of oppression and persecution that followed Hebrews since antiquity seems to more or less have escaped me. Now, far be it from me to follow this to the conclusion that Jews are now justified in destroying or harming others, nor do I think every person should try to imagine the suffering of his ancestors’ people (i.e. “every generation should see itself as having escaped Egypt/Auschwitz”, etc.), but I’m glad I can better appreciate the very long and complex history behind these attitudes.

Now, reading about disgusting, brutal, and surprisingly varied forms of oppression throughout history was difficult, but I was surprised at the view of the 1948 war (a.k.a Nakba, or Israel’s War of Independence) presented in the book. It was so one-sidedly pro-Zionist that it made me wonder whether Michener was just trying to make sure his novel sold well, or if he was actually ill-informed. He didn’t spare any brutality elsewhere in the book. But after struggling a little with the 1948 chapter and the 1964 ending, I simply made my peace with the fact that this was a novel, i.e. a story, and a story means a narrative. The Zionist narrative is only partly true, just like the Palestinian narrative is only partly true, and I’m wiser for having had the Zionist narrative sold to me so convincingly, so beautifully.

But like other books about Israel2, this one ended on a very hopeful note, in particular regarding co-existence between Jews and Arabs and Israel’s intention of being a model of human right. Obviously, 1967 and its consequences were unimaginable at the time of writing (1964), no less than Israel’s victory in 1948 was even as it was going on. But reading about a hopeful future imagined before I was born and falling so very far off the mark is always painful. And all we can do is update the hopeful imagination and work to make it come true this time.

Footnotes

  1. A tel is a hill composed of layers over layers of civilization; these things are everywhere in Israel. []
  2. At least non-fiction Arab and Jew, by David Shipler (1986), which I highly recommend, and not only because both of my parents are quoted in it from when they were dating! []

14 thoughts on “Book Review: The Source, by James A. Michener (1965)”

  1. In 1978, also before you were born, I was in college and taking a class called Archaeology and Geography of the Holy Land. I spent spring break reading The Source and writing a book review of it. Glad to know a few young folks are still reading and enjoying it. My best-learned lesson from it was don’t put off reading a mandatory 1000 page book until spring break. It’s on my bucket list to re-read it and savor all its meatiness because I want to, not because I have to.

  2. I read this when I was 19. Now at 57 I plan on reading it again as it left a memorable mark on me and I site it as my favourite read to date.

    1. I too read it in my teens (for pleasure not assigned). Will reread now at age 66 so I can re-appreciate from a different perspective.

  3. I enjoyed this review, and wouldn’t mind reading the novel itself. But regarding the reviewer’s comment about it being “one-sidely pro-Zionist” in depicting the events of 1948, I wouldn’t expect much else from a popular novel published in English in 1965.

  4. I enjoyed The source, and learnt a lot about the Jewish and Chritian religions. I’m a Christian myself.

  5. See Naples before you die! Yep did that.
    So glad to have discovered ‘The Source’ as well, but at seventy seven wish I had unearthed it earlier. It puts my life (so far) into perspective.
    Will I lose my no claims bonus?
    How much sugar in this biscuit?
    OMG!

    Peter Troy

  6. I liked your review, and glad you mentioned the depiction of the male-female relationships. I was taken aback by how modern the ones depicted seemed to be. They seemed to be independent and acted on their own.

  7. I have read several other James Michener books and there is a little falsifying of facts, especially the book, Texas. good read but not much accuracy. History can be changed by someone writing down fictional facts for true facts. that is my concern. I love Jewish history and to read about the land of my Savior’s birth but I want it to be true.

    1. His books are novels. They are not history books. Michener doesn’t “falsify facts” and in particular, right in the beginning of “Texas” he explains what is fiction and what are true events in the book.

  8. Excellent review. I read it whilst my wife and I were on a study tour of Israel and Jordan (she’s doing a Masters in Theology) and felt dismayed reading the hope for peaceful coexistence whilst passing through checkpoints to Bethlehem.

  9. I read it in the 70s. It made me a Zionist.
    But subsequent events in the middle-east have completely reversed my affinity for the Jewish state.

  10. You cannot read Michener and end your life uneducated. He is a crucial link in learning how the world is stitched together, and I appreciate him more with each advancing year. If this current breed of smart diplomats in Washington, DC , and Russia, had read Caravans, Afghanistan would be a different place today!

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