"Recessional" by James Michener

  Before I retired, I had been reading "Recessional" and was sharing my enjoyment of James Michener's writing with my co-workers.   

  So, when I retired, the staff presented me with this collection of his work. 

     Soon after retirement, I got very involved with book clubs and, sad to say, this great collection became a lovely decoration on my bookshelf.        The bookends were part of the gift and added to the decoration.    Aren't they adorable?

Oh, yes, and here are the paperbacks.  I read "Hawaii" aloud to John and it took 75 days. 

You can read about it here.

   Since the summer is starting, there is less time needed for book clubs, so I decided to re-read "Recessional".  The title refers to the music played at the end of a church service and the plot is around a retirement residence in Florida.  All of Michener's books are lengthy.  Now I remember my love/hate relationship with Michener.  He loves to write detail, detail, detail.  Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it.  I experienced that seesaw in re-reading this book.  It is 21 years since I read it the first time, and now I am the age of the residents (older than some).  It certainly was a different experience.

   End of life issues are a dominant theme in the book, so I wasn't surprised to learn that he wrote this book when he was 88 and died two years later.