Fugitive Pieces

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Summary: Evocative novel about love across space & time ...
Review: There are echoes throughout the book that keep coming back to me - questions about my presumptions of what a life is, how it is shaped by willed singularity, what is known, and even more of what isn't. I feel Michaels' book has achieved the equivalent of slowly unearthing a perfect fossil, a specimen complete in itself. This isn't a story about the Holocaust - it's about the legacy of love ... I hope she writes another soon!

Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed.
Review: i found this book choppy at best. it is true some of the writing was lyrical, but there was not enough accessible story to sustain my interest. i found it greatly lacking in character development -- who WERE all these people? i didn't buy the instant relief brought by michaela to jakob; it seemed like no more than a writer's invention. the second portion, which concentrated on ben was even harder to like; i had no sympathy for his affair with petra and his denial of his wife; even worse, i didn't believe any of it because i saw them all as cardboard people. i kept wanting to scream, "get over it! get therapy!" -- not a usual or expected reaction to a holocaust story. this book just seemed to go nowhere; way too much philosophical rumination. i did appreciate reading about greece during the war, and some of the holocaust images were haunting, but for an infinitely more moving book about the nature of time, space, and memory, read Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman.

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Summary: Gorgeous!
Review: I found it to be one of the beautifully written books I've read. The story is gripping in the detail of the lives portrayed. Each sentence is a work of art.

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Summary: one of the most compelling books I've ever read
Review: The book is beautifully written, very beliveable, most compelling. I read it 2 weeks ago and still can't get it out of my mind. Not an "easy" read.. but like most fine literature each word and every page a treasure.

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Summary: A challenging and rewarding read
Review: This book is a unique reading experience, something of a cross between poetry and prose, dreams and nightmares, narration and stream of consciousness. Read with a pencil or pen so you can note those lyrical passages you must read to others.

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Summary: Lyrical prose that made me weep
Review: My friend in England bought all of his friends a copy of this book for Christmas. Just finishing it, I can see why. I started this book on a plane back from Canada to the States, and I cannot remember the last time a single sentence would literally make me catch my breath. There are so many moments in this book that I felt I had stopped breathing. The emotional impact of the stories, the phraseology and poetry was immense. As a previous reviewer mentioned, I also read paragraphs to friends - eager to share perfect moments of prose. I often felt a physical response to the beauty of the language. There is no doubt, in my mind, that the final transition of the novel to Ben's story is flawed and a little clumsy. But don't let that stop you reading this amazing piece of work. It will haunt you for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: incoherent,unfocused and very non linear
Review: I could not believe that I read the same book that received such gushing reviews from almost all reviewers. This book did not know where to go with a potentially fascinating premise. I have read alot of Holocaust literature but find this book the most disappointing of all.

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Summary: Over-rated holocaust novel
Review: I was very disappointed. The book has a few moments of beauty and insight but lacks narrative drive and is frequently pretentious . A willingness to deal with a serious subject like the Holocaust does not in itself qualify a book for greatness. Pales into insignificance besides the work of someone like Primo Levi.

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Summary: Absolutely the best written book in ages
Review: I read this book in the summer, at the cottage while on the beach. No book has ever made me stop, and say to my neighbours on the beach - you must hear this sentence, it is the most beautifully written thing I have ever read. My beach dwelling neighbours soon became used to me interrupting their own reading to hear passages from this brilliant book - every page had a sentence to take your breath away. Yet, at the same time it was a depressing and moving story. So many emotions filled my mind as I read this book!

Rating:
Summary: Well worth the effort
Review: From the first page one wonders how beautiful the hand must have been that created this incantation of the soul. The language is rich, and the style is somewhat of an amalgam between prose and poetry. Michaels use of metaphor and poetics is uncanny amidst the efficient, angular prose. There is much to be discovered in the language as we are privy to the mind of a poet at work. The narrative wanders about in the aftermath of war, discovering the forfeited fragments of memory displaced in what is an arduous journey of recovery with the human heart at stake. This work is important and profound.