Group Read, December 2017: Fugitive Pieces

Our group read for December is Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces. Please join in the read and post any comments here.

Just want to be sure I don't spoil anything and want to follow protocol. Is this the place for our review of said book?

>2 Tess_W: generally fine to post any comment/review/impression relating to the book here, though avoid being specific about any major spoilers (unexpected twists, deaths of major characters etc). If your not sure whether you spoiling a plot twist I would start your message with a bold “SPOILER ALERT” header so people can skip over the message if they want to.

Look forward to reading your thoughts on this book.

>2 Tess_W: you can also use spoiler tags for thoughts you want to hide from first view.

Just replace the curly brackets { } with the appropriate angle brackets >
{spoiler}for thoughts you want to hide from first view{/spoiler}

>4 ELiz_M: I had no idea how all you other clever people did those spoiler alerts! Thanks!
I have about 50 pages of The Riddle of the Sands left and will then move on to Fugitive Pieces. Looking forward to it!

http://arukiyomi.com/?p=6066

my review in case anyone's interested

I started reading last night and so far I really enjoy it. I thought the opening chapter with Jakob witnessing the destruction of his family and then clawing his way through the land only to show up as a golem before Athos was beautifully written. You could really tell that Anne Michaels also writes poetry.

>6 arukiyomi: arukiyomi I agree with your review. The first part of the novel reads like poetry. However the second part doesn't seem to fit well and I'm not sure that it adds anything to the story.

I'm now about 50 pages in to the book. The imagery and prose is quite marvellous; virtually every sentence is memorable and quotable. Hope the rest of the book lives up to this promising opening.

as my review and socialpages' comment indicates... it probably won't. Will be interesting to see what you think of the second part

I'm about 35 pages in. The writing so amazing and so intense that I cannot see how it could be sustained over the length of a novel. But I'm enjoying it for now!

I am one that liked the 2nd half of the book as well as the first half.

I finished the book last night and I enjoyed it a lot. The writing is poetic and thought-provoking.

Most of all it is a book about the survivors who have to find a way to live with the horrible memories of the crimes they have witnessed and the loved ones they have lost. I don't think Jakob has survivor's guilt, but he is depressed because of his terrible losses and he feels a huge obligation to preserve the memory of the dead. It is a terrible burden to bear.

I thought the two parts of the book worked quite well, and I didn't think the story of Ben was detached from the rest. On the contrary it shows that the burden felt by the survivors is inherited by the next generation.

I likewise finished the book today. After the stunning prose and imagery of the opening pages I felt the rest of the book didn't reach those heights. There is much in the writing that is admirable, but my sense of the book is one of admiration rather than enjoyment - the characters are somewhat elusive and the mood is rather sad and depressing. Like >13 Henrik_Madsen: I think the second half adds another layer to the story of Jakob and other survivors of the Holocaust.

A re-read would likely be worthwhile.

I felt that the either the characters were not well developed or that we only see them through a fog. However, I did like the book.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through. This book actually took a while to grow on me. I appreciated the prose but couldn't quite see the point. But as it goes onward, I understand this to be a book about the pain of survivorhood (if that's a word). So neither plot nor characters really matter much.

I just got my hands on a copy and can hardly wait to crack it open based on the enthusiasm in this thread...

I'm getting close to the end now and I agree with those who are not keen on the second part. It just feels unnecessary. Due to my bad habit of looking ahead, I realize that it will attach itself more closely to Part I at the end. Nevertheless, part I felt complete in itself, and this feels like something that wanted to be its own short story and then got tacked on to Jakob Beer's book.

I'm about halfway through, as I haven't had much time to read lately. I really like the flow of the writing. It's simultaneously intimate to the point of coziness and unflinchingly dark. I'm reading it in translation and the awkwardly rendered wordplay bits have me thinking I'll have to reread it in the original if the work stays as good to the end as it is now.