Jack E. Davis
"A brilliant, beautifully crafted memoir and history of a tragic place cast in contradictions inherent to our often-vexing species. Micah Fields’s human subjects—from barbaric conquistador to saintly fisherman/artist—arise in full flesh. His descriptions of nature’s best works and humanity’s worst are the very definition of artistry. And his gift of reflection leaves us thinking differently about tomorrow—while holding our breath."
D. J. Waldie
"A life can be found in the grid of a city, among its habits, and through its history. Houston—a city of mud and hubris—may not be the natural subject of a lyrical memoir, but Micah Fields truly makes it so. His story—deeply personal and often harrowing—makes this place and his place in it matter intensely and beautifully."
John D’Agata
"Rather than blindly condemning its industry, its sprawl, its ugliness, or its doom, Micah Fields’s loving, honest, and beautiful debut is a portrait of Houston by a native son who might not call the city home anymore, but who still recognizes its place in his heart, the same place where all of our hometowns reside, where every town that’s left, forgotten, flown over, or ignored remains in spite of ourselves. We Hold Our Breath is a portrait of us."
Zandria F. Robinson
"We Hold Our Breath quite breathlessly blends the rural and urban, past and present, and industrial and postmodern Souths. [This is] an artful Texas tale of humans and other animals working with and against land and nature on that state’s coast and in its most populous city."
DJ Waldie
"A life can be found in the grid of a city, among its habits, and through its history. Houston—a city of mud and hubris—may not be the natural subject of a lyrical memoir, but Micah Fields truly makes it so. His story—deeply personal and often harrowing—makes this place and his place in it matter intensely and beautifully."
Kirkus Reviews
2023-04-06
A Houston native explores the city’s relationship to the storms that have posed a perennial threat to its existence.
In 2017, Fields, who works as a fly-fishing guide on the Missouri River, drove from Iowa to Houston. Though ambivalent about returning, the destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey had “unlocked a spell of sudden and lucid conviction” that compelled him home. That journey became the basis of this book, about the people, such as land speculator Augustus Allen, and historical forces—like early-19th-century American expansionism—that created Houston from a “sucking bowl” of swampland. Accompanying Fields on his travels was a friend and fellow former Marine named Nigel. Together, they toured post-Harvey devastation by boat, observing how destroyed neighborhoods “seethed, in the humid, post-storm heat, like giant and filthy altars to loss.” As the narrative develops, the “deep water[s]” against which Houston had always fought become a metaphor for personal pain and suffering. Fields reveals that Harvey provided “the neutralizing circumstance of real emergency” that allowed him and the “fierce and restless” bipolar mother from whom he had grown distant to “see each other freshly, without baggage.” At the same time, obligations created by the hurricane helped the author revive closeness with Nigel, who had tested him with years of maddening inconsistency. A year later, Fields returned alone to observe the lingering aftereffects of Harvey on the oil industry that had enriched Houston but also created refineries susceptible to toxic emissions, especially in the wake of massive storms. During such storms, writes the author, “most refineries and processing facilities shut down their monitoring systems, turning a blind eye to malfunctions.” In this brief yet memorable book, Fields creates an unsentimental yet poignant story that examines the complexities of one man's homecoming. With eloquence and grace, the author investigates the interconnectedness of place, history, and identity.
A thoughtfully elegant, reflective work.
