Fugitive Pieces
A haunting, poignant tale of the Holocaust and its aftermath in the lives of generations as perceived by survivors and their descendants as well as the people around them. The topic itself and the way Michaels handles it deserve five stars. However, the entanglement of people's life stories, intertwined with philosophical and academic musings and wrapped in 'artistic' language, demands at least another reading to properly grasp all the nuances.
Despite the author being a woman, another aspect that requires a reread is the treatment of women in the book: worshipped, almost sanctified, they are also slighted and cheated on, and the male narrators feel to me mostly disconnected from them, thus making women sort of a shadowy presence. Or maybe that is just how it felt to me.
All in all, Fugitive Pieces is a fascinating, complex read that has to be taken in small doses that provide plenty food for thought, most likely through multiple rereads.
