Fugitive Pieces

More, please

I was so impressed by this outstanding novel that I read four years ago, that I have since been waiting for more works by this incredible author. I keep scanning her name, every three months or so, with the expectation of getting another treat from her. The best poetic novelist I have read in the last ten years.

horrid

The book was beautiful at first, with interesting metaphors. But as the book goes on, I can't help but get the feeling that the author was trying too hard to be 'insightful' and 'deep' with her topics, 'beautiful' and 'descriptive' with her language, and 'unique' in her style. I see no coherent plot in this book and I wonder if there is one at all.

Tidbits

The book had many passages and quotes which I loved. The tidbits are what make this book a thought provoking, intellectual read. I wasn't expecting much out of an assigned book, and the first time I read it I was slightly disappointed. But then, we were told to go back and pick out passages that we liked. I couldn't believe how many little tidbits I could relate to. The story was confusing and haphazard, but the revelations that occurred because of these events made the book worth the confusion. It really is rather deep and insightful. I liked it and recommend it to anyone who'd like a look into the human soul.

I learned what it means to live

I read it for my school; when I started it, I was not expecting myself to enjoy a book that my school is making me read. Then I realized that this book includes every pieces of emotions that I need to live as a human. I believe that this book can be hard and confusing, but don't just look at the surface; there are things that are invisible but very important. You need to think, that is what we should be doing in general. That IS what it means to be human.

The Most Beautiful book I have read in 20 years

This is the most beautifully written and sinsitive book I have read since Carson McCuller's Heart of a Lonely Hunter. Ms. Michaels - in beautifully poetic prose, took me right into the heart of the characters and what they must face and subsequently do. I found myself in the wall hiding with the boy. I found my heart pounding as he hid in the forest and water. I felt deeply concerned as they approached the border. And truly moved as they moved on. The adult parallels are so beautifully sad adn true to the human experience, that I still find myself moved years after I had read the book. I give it as a gift to everyone I know who loves to read. Her writing is nothing short of poetry. The story is extremely humane and will resonate in me for years and years. (I've re-read ot four times now). I check the weekly NY Times book review in the hopes of finding her next book. Oprah should recommedd this for all readers. It is a truly beautiful book! Truly a gift for our times.

Breathtaking

As the back cover states '..a book that should not so much be read as it should be surrendered to'

THE most boring book ever ....

I was so excited about this book, but was greatly disappointed. Don't waste your time and money on this one. It has to be THE most boring book I've read in ages. And very difficult to read too. Unless if you're truly into poetry and poets and/or Geology or whatever the heck the characters were into, don't bother with this one. A huge disappointment. I want my money back!

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Beware

This book was boring, confusing, and, overall, a thoroughly unenjoyable reading experience. I felt as if there was a mist in front of the book which preventing me from understanding anything that was occurring. I do not recommend this book and I cautoin anyone who wishes to read it.

Beautiful, poignant, storytelling at it's best.

Incredable story, beautifully written. Rarely does a novel have such impact. The story, the writing...beyond words!

Love's Perpetual Thrist

Fugitive Pieces is Canadian poet Anne Michaels' first novel and it is beautiful in the extreme. At the heart of this lovely and moving book is the struggle to understand the despair of loss and the solace of love and, most of all, the difficulty of reconciling the two. The protagonists are two Jewish men, one a Holocaust survivor, the other the son of Holocaust survivor parents. Material such as that explored in Fugitive Pieces could very easily become trite and cliched, but in Michaels' extraordinarily gifted hands suffering, loss and grief become nothing less than transcendent. An extraordinarily gifted writer, Michaels creates wonderful characters and tells an engrossing story through the use of gorgeous, but spare, dialogue and subtle metaphor. The plot is a rather simple one (this is definitely a character driven story) but it is profound and also a profoundly moving meditation on the nature of grief and the redemptive power of love. The first line in the book, 'Time is a blind guide,' is haunting, but it is also ironic, for the story will prove that time is anything but blind. One of the protagonists, Jakob Beer, was orphaned as a seven-year old boy in Poland. Although the death of his parents affects Jakob most greviously, it is his sorrow at the death of his beloved older sister, Bella, that will remain with him for a lifetime. Jakob, himself, escapes the Nazis and flees into the forests of Poland where he is rescued by a Greek geologist, Athos Roussos, who eventually smuggles the boy to the Greek island of Zakynthos. On Zakynthos, Jakob can finally begin to put his life back together again. He is, however, haunted by memories of Bella, a gifted pianist. It is Bella who ultimately becomes Jakob's Beatrice as he begins his fascination with the poetry that will play a central role in the balance of his life. Athos, himself a widower, and Jakob, an orphan, seem to find in each other what they thought they had forever lost: a sense of family and abiding love and trust. As Athos finds joy in raising Jakob, Jakob finds joy in the values Athos seeks to instill in him: the love of language, scholarship and ethics. Although Athos seeks to heal Jakob, he does not attempt to obliterate his past. Ïnstead, Athos encourages Jakob to learn his Hebrew alphabet, telling him it is the future he is remembering rather than the past. As Jakob practices both the twisting and ornate letters of Hebrew and Greek, Athos tells him that both languages contain the 'ancient loneliness of ruins.' The narrative eventually moves from Greece to Toronto where Jakob becomes the product of his love for the late Bella and the teachings of Athos. The love given him so freely by both will serve as a continuum for the rest of Jakob's life as he realizes that the best teachers encourage, not the mind, but the heart. Jakob comes to know that Athos instilled in him the necessity of love and, that, to honor both Athos and Bella he must resolve a 'perpetual thirst.' The story closes with the character of Ben, a young professor who has become fascinated by both Jakob and his work. Their relationship is reminiscent of the relationship of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in James Joyce's Ulysses. Ben's family was the very antithesis of the relationship shared by Athos and Jakob. In Ben's family there was no energy, no love, no sadness. Ben seeks strength and purpose in Jakob's life and in his words, words that have the ability to transmute the horror of war and the loss of family. Words that have the power to speak that which, heretofore, has remained unspoken. Fugitive Pieces is a beautiful novel, a meditation on love and loss and grief and solace. It is a quiet book but one that is immensely profound. Anne Michaels is a gifted poet and with Fugitive Pieces she proves that she is an extraordinary gifted writer of prose as well.

THE UNIVERSAL SEARCH FOR THAT WHICH IS LOST

The author, with poetic and magical images, takes one to a holy place, that exudes humanity and beauty in a relentless search for that which is lost.

Moving and Beautiful

Not only is the language beautiful in this book, the story is unusual and very moving. How often do read about a man transcending race, religion and laws to take care of a child? Fugitive Pieces is a unique story of love, admiration, personal growth and heroism. The words alone in this book are so beautifully strung together that each page is its own amazing piece of art and as a whole it is a masterpiece.

Pieces That Fit

This is an exceptional book with a rich language that traces a young boy's life into manhood. Written in a poetic language, Michaels captures and exposes the spirit of her characters.

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