Anne's Response to Fugitive Pieces

READER RESPONSE FOR FUGITIVE PIECES

I loved the emotions that Anne Michaels got stirred up in me. I cried and I laughed. I was angry and shocked. From the third page of the story, I was absolutely gripped: “I wanted to go to my parents, to touch them. But I couldn’t, unless I stepped on their blood” (7). I wanted to cry (and did) for this little boy, for all the kids and their families affected by this tragedy.

I love the way Michaels wove together her words – very poetic and striking. For me, this style worked incredibly well because as a female, it struck my emotional and romantic side. For example, when I compare the love-making scenes from Three Day Road to Fugitive Pieces, the latter wins, no contest. Michaels wrote in a more sensual style that appealed to me more. “Then I realize she’s entirely concentrated, pinioned under my tongue, that she’d giving me the most extravagant permission to roam the surface of her” (180). If only my Colin talked like that!
While the basic point of the this story is survival, I also believe it is about love. Michaela’s love for Jakob opens a whole new compartment in him that Alex was not able to open. I also think that it is Michaela’s love that allows Jakob to experience a degree of healing. We talked about this in class and I think it was Holly who said “but does anyone ever really heal from that?” I agree. A person never forgets traumatic events that happen to them. Those events shape and mold you as time goes on. But I do think there can be healing with the aid of the right devices. For Jakob, the devices are writing and Michaela’s love.

Regarding the end section of the novel: at first, it bothered me that new characters were being introduced to tell the rest of the story. As I’ve skimmed through the end part again, and after Tuesday’s class, I am beginning to feel less hostile towards it. I’m not sure who said it but something to the effect of “war touched generations” was said. I agree wholly with that and Ben portrays this. All his life, any discomfort, shame, or anguish that he felt has come from his parents and their experiences. They did not talk about anything with him yet his life was shaped by the trauma they felt. Ben finally achieved freedom/healing form his parent’s past: “in my hotel room the before I leave Greece, I know the elation of ordinary sorrow. At last my unhappiness is my own” (292). He may not be fully healed as he still had to work through that unhappiness as well as his relationship with Naomi, but there is partial healing. Contradictorily, some of it is due to his affair with Petra.

One a last note, I need to add that despite the fact that Ben’s parents did not verbalize their feelings or experiences, they did communicate to Ben. He was just not able to identify it until his ‘healing.’ The quote is on page 294 and he sees his parent’s drawing strength from each other. All along, Ben’s parents had been each other’s source of strength. They had survived together and even though they loved Ben, what they had was for them. Ben only saw the outer surface of the picture that his parents represented. Thankfully, he was able to go beyond the superficial exterior and see his parents for who and what they truly were. We would all be better off if we could live by the last sentence of the novel: I see that I must give what I need most.