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Summary: One of the most eloquent beautifully written books I've read
Review: One might think from the bookjacket that Fugitive Pieces would be depressing. Rather, it manages to show a survivor's appreciation of life, saved from the cliches of being "uplifting" and "inspiring" by the acknowledgement of the memories that haunt Jakob. Admittedly, the portion of the book that deals with the earlier portions of Jakob's life is more engaging. The language and style of the book, however, are such that the story itself is secondary. There are passages of such surpassing beauty and perfection that I wanted to call people from London just to say, "listen to this, isn't this gorgeous?" Definitely one of the most stunning pieces of writing I've encountered lately.
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Summary: Magnificent. The writing left me breathless.
Review: An extraordinary book. I can't begin to articulate how the writing as well as the story, moved me.
Rating:
Summary: deeply touched
Review: I read this amazing book over one year ago. I seldom reread books but went back to this one again! Have not been so deeply moved by a book in years. Await more delights from Anne Michaels.
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Summary: Maybe the best book I've ever read
Review: The imagery in this book has never left me though I actually read it several months ago. Bella's hair "like a muscle down her back", the houses "connected to heaven by ropes of smoke" and the quiet stories of both Jakob and Ben. I was transfixed and continue to be. Beautiful language that boils down to undeniable truths: "Find a way to make beauty a necessity, find a way to make necessity beautiful" or "you have to give what you need". The effect has been haunting.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant but flawed debut novel.
Review: Jacob Beer is a child of the Holocost. Having witnessed yet escaping the brutal murder of his family by the fluke of happening to be in his favorite hiding place at the time of the murders, he runs off and is ultimately found by Anthos Roussos, a Greek archeologist digging in an area nearby Joacob's home. Realizing that the boy is in grave danger, Anthos abandons his dig and smuggles the boy out to Greece. Within hours of leaving, the Nazis overrun the area of the dig and kill everyone associated with it. Thus, in the first of many wonderfully crafted observations, Michaels notes that, "in effect, they saved each other."This is the sort of lyrical construction that fills a brillant book that works much better as a lyrical prose poem than it does as a novel, as structurally the book is seriously flawed. The characters remain elusively imcomplete due to haphazard breaks in the story line. For example, though Jacob's second wife obviously is the true love of his life, she has no significant role in the narrative other than that of a shadow as, shortly after she's introduced, the novel changes direction entirely, adopting a new protagonist, Ben, who is trying to recover Jacobs papers after his death. All rather awkward. As a result, too many significant characters are insubstaintial shadows, not the substantive elements of the story they obviously shape but, in the structure of the book, don't really participate in. Frustrating though these structural flaws may be, and they are frustrating indeed, Ms. Michaels nevertheless infuses this novel with such lyrical, poetic allusion, such passion, and such a keen eye for spiritual anomie that the book is, in the end, well worth reading and savoring. My hope is that future works will work better stylisctically and structurally yet remain at the same overall level of artistic accomplishment as is realized in this novel.
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Summary: I was deeply moved by this book.
Review: I enjoyed this book tremendously and my only criticism would be that it left so many questions unanswered, so many stones unturned. I wanted to know more about Ben's life as an adult... The writing is beautiful--poetic, flowing, musical. Often I went back, searching for passages and bits of wisdom that had lingered in my mind throughout the night. Seeing the events described through the eyes of a child, throught the eyes of two people linked together by fate in a tiny microcosm of the the war was inspiring and sensitively done.
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Summary: IT IS JUST LIKE READING POETRY
Review: I've just begun reading it, but it's clear from the opening that the writer is a poet - calling the reader to follow visually and emotionally the experience by means of lots of similes which are rich and strange. The imagery is powerful, the language precise.
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Summary: This book helped me find yellow again
Review: "Fugitive Pieces" is quite simply a piece of genious. There is not a book that has ever made me feel so strongly. I was brought to tears, engulfed in pain, and completely inspired. Michaels describes a life long journey to overcome grief through love, and never has there been a more difficult and satisfying trek. I have re-read this book three times, each time finding new layers and a greater understanding. This is the one book I would recommend over any other.
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Summary: A book to be savored!
Review: This is one of those rare books which leave you reluctant to read anything else just because you know no other book could possibly measure up. Anne Michaels' writing is powerful and simple. You'll buy this book for everyone's birthday for the next year at least!
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Summary: Exquisite poetic prose I had to repeatedly savor; and wept.
Review: I agreed with all other 5 star reviews, can hardly improve on their reviews, but absolutely disagreed with "audubon" and any less than 4 stars. What answer could any therapy possibly provide to the Holocaust and all its generational victims? Haven't you ever experienced the deeply healing and redemptive power of new love? I too, underlined so much, rewrote so much in my reader's journal, and just recommended this book as my latest "bible" to my entire e-mail family during a round-robin theological/philosophical debate we are having. I stared at Ms. Michaels' picture over and over, so impressed I was that a woman so young can know so much and be so wise in such exquisitely poetic prose that I could read her over and over if stranded on Zakynthos--I haven't yet had the pleasure of visiting after my 3 weeks in Greece. I hope she writes again, and put her right up there with my last latest weeper, Louise Erdrich's, Tales of Burning Love--not just Erdrich's story, but also her writing. Now I have to get Michaels' poetry. Deserved her First Novel award for every well-crafted word and sentence. (My first on-line book review, I was so moved and motivated to read others' responses since no one in my circle has yet discovered her, and to share my delight and astonishment with other appreciators.)
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