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Anne Michaels wrote a beautiful book called Fugitive pieces. In this book she offered the reader the collection of poems concerning various issues. One of the themes covered in her writings is the theme of past that develops through her literary pieces. In 1940, Jacob Beer, a seven-year-old boy, bursts from the mud of a war-torn Polish city, where he has buried himself to hide from Nazi soldiers who have killed his family. Though he should have died with his family, he has not only survived but been rescued by a Greek geologist. With this electrifying backdrop, Anne Michaels propels us into her rapturously acclaimed novel of loss, memory, history, and redemption.
Michaels lets us witness Jacobs transformation from a half-wild casualty of the Holocaust to an artist who extracts meaning from the abyss. Jakob's unexpected savior, Athos Roussos, takes him home to Greece, where he nurtures the boy, slowly coaxing him to take an interest in the sciences, in life. But how to explore the sorrow and the terror of a youngster whose entire family was killed in front of his very eyes? How to explain the horror of a past so terrible it will forever color the future? Somehow, in prose so lyrical it breaks the heart, Michaels lets us see into the very soul of Jakob Beer; she permits us to watch him experience and grow through his anguish. And she allows us to observe as a sensitive, eccentric Roussos teaches the boy Greek and gently feeds him with a love of geology, cartography, botany, art and poetry - while making sure he never forgets his own Jewish culture.
After the war, Roussos gets a job teaching in the new geography department at the University of Toronto, and it is with a startled sense of poignancy that the reader watches as a still-grieving Jakob grows into an adult. This is actually one example of how Michaels shows historical events that happened during Holocaust period in her perception. I read a quote somewhere to the effect that this was a book not so much to enter into, but to which the reader should surrender - and thats a very apt observation. There is beauty and depth in Michaels writing its clearly an advantage to the years shes put in writing poetry. There are breathtaking passages on nearly every page - her prose is almost liquid in its richness.
Theres a rather negative review below that states Lyrical writing does not of itself make a great book or a great work of art - this is a true statement, but there is SO much more to be experienced in this novel. Michaels characters are vivid and alive - both those who are 'simple' and those who are deeper in their thought. Jakob's character permeates the entire book - even in the second part, which is narrated by Ben, after Jakob's death. Despite the fact that the Holocaust by its horrific nature plays a huge role in this story, this is not just another Holocaust novel. Without bypassing the obscenities committed by the Nazis against the Jews (and anyone else they considered to be inferior), Michaels has given the reader a story of survival and rebuilding - not so much the rebuilding of bridges and cities, but the rebuilding of lives and spirits. When Jakob witnesses - without seeing, hearing only peripheral sounds - the death of his parents and the abduction of his beloved sister, his heart is broken.
Nothing breaks like the heart of a child - and it takes immense effort, support and time for it to heal again. Not only does Jakob manage, over the course of his life, to get past the unimaginable atrocities he has experienced and seen - he grows in sprit in an incredible way, making leaps beyond what he might have accomplished if his childhood had never been interrupted by the Nazis. In the novels second part, Ben, a young professor and an expert in the drama of weather and biography, meets the now sixty-year-old Jakob and his ardent and glorious Michaela at the home of a mutual friend. The quiet elation Ben senses in the older man, and Bens own connection to the wounding legacies of the war, kindle a fascination with Jakob and his writing, disturbing the safety of his carefully ordered world.
Lyrical, sensual, vivid, Fugitive Pieces is infused with a keen intelligence and a profound understanding of the human heart and the way historical events can shape us. Anne Michaels's characters are luminously created and alive with humanity, and we are drawn into their unforgettable lives with compassion and recognition. This is a first novel of astonishing achievement. Anne Michaels reveals herself to be one of the most exciting fiction writers to appear in a long time.
She shows a link between the past and the future by telling a story about this boy Jakob and how did he survive. In Fugitive Pieces two people reinvent worlds that will hold them, gradually trusting their impulse to love, after their lives have been altered by war. In language electric with life, Anne Michaels constructs a delicate bridge between the present and the haunting past and leads her characters to solid ground and a permanent place in our memories. This is an exceptional work of art that can actually be considered a tremendous historical presentation of the theme of past World War events. Finally at the end of the story and as the War ends, Athos accepts an invitation to the University of Toronto's new geography department, headed by a former member of Captain Scotts Antarctic expedition. Jakob learns the terrain of this city, built in the bowl of a prehistoric lake, just as he discovers the insistent nature of the layered past.
His loss surfaces in all its complexity, as does the haunting question of his sisters fate. It is here that Jakob will meet his first wife - the animated, exhilarating Alex - and begin his career as translator and poet. Consequently we may state that the theme of past events is clearly expressed by the author in her astonishing work Fugitive pieces. There are many examples of peoples actions during the ugly times of World War 2, and that story of two men and how did they comply with all the struggles they had for their freedom and wellness. Past is linked pretty well with the future by telling how the two people end up after the war was over. Bibliography: Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces.
Philadelphia: Vintage Books, 1998
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