I wrote this critical essay on Fugitive Pieces by Canadian poet and novelist Anne Michaels. Anyone who is interested in trauma fiction will like this novel. It's an excellent read, I fully recommend it.
One of the most important characters in Fugitive
Pieces is Michaela, the young administrator
at the museum that the protagonist meets through his dear friends Irena and
Maurice. Immediately, Jakob Beer is smitten with this beautiful woman and is
unsettled by her physical appearance as he wonders “what to look at first.
Her light-brown hair or her dark-brown eyes or her small hand disappearing into
her shoulder of her dress to adjust a strap” (175). In the course of the novel,
Jakob and Michaela will forge a very strong bond and loving relationship, as
the twenty-five year younger woman will become his second wife.
The physical features of Michaela appear to be a
prominent factor in Fugitive Pieces. In
fact, the reader gets a vivid and graphic representation of her whole body
throughout their love story. Only to name a few instances, Michaela is
described as a “voluptuous
scholar” (176), Jakob sees “in Michaela’s face the goodness of Beatrice de
Luna, angel of Ferrara, who reclaimed her faith and gave refuge to other exiles
of the Inquisition” (178,) and he moves “over the boundary of skin into
Michaela’s memory” (185). In this
regard, Jakob’s relationship with Michaela relies abundantly on her
physicality. In the light of the following arguments, it will be discussed how
Michaela’s young and ardent body plays a significant role in the novel and
consequently, how it also helped in saving Jakob Beer.
First of all, one of the reasons why Michaela’s
corporeality is a key factor in Fugitive Pieces is because there are noteworthy parallels between death and the body.
Jakob lost both his parents and his sister Bella as a child and then, his
mentor Athos lateron. Bella's ghost has haunted him ever since. In the case of his sister, it even seems that the
protagonist continues “living” for her as he not only remembers a number of
details concerning her past life; but he also imagines the life she would have
had if she were still alive. For example, he visualized Bella’s children: “I
love Maurice and Irena’s boys, as I would have loved Bella’s children” (174).
Although not present in body, his parents, Athos and Bella's deaths have deeply affected Jakob Beer.
Undoubtedly, the spirits of his family are very present emotionally in
Jakob’s life and he finds solace in keeping them in memory.
Now, regarding Michaela, Jakob is confronted with
something that is quite unfamiliar to him until the moment the meets her. For
the male protagonist, ”there is no tinge of death in Michaela’s body” (181).
With this emphasis on her different body parts, he is amazed by the “life” in
them. As Jakob states, “I see the muscles pushing out her calves, firm as new
pears. I see that she will again open her eyes and embrace me” (181).
Michaela’s physical presence is an important factor because it seems to
encompass life in all its beauty in the eyes of Jakob. Her body comforts him.
Ghosts had possessed him throughout his life, but with Michaela, he himself
comes alive again. “Every cell in my body has been replaced, suffused with
peace.” (182)
On a
second note, Michaela plays a significant role in Anne Michaels’ novel because
she is the “embodiment of a perfect listener” (Schönfelder) and is extremely
empathetic towards Jakob’s confession: “She is sobbing. She has heard
everything – her heart an ear, her skin an ear, Michaela is crying for Bella”
(182). Once again, in describing this particular quality i.e. her empathetic
side, the reader gets an emphasis on Michaela’s physicality. It gives the
impression that her “whole being” listens and cares for Jakob. By describing it
so graphically, it once again underlines the importance of Michaela’s body.
In addition, Michaela’s corporeality is also a key
element in Fugitive Pieces because it
not only has a healing effect on Jakob; but it also gives the male protagonist
a sense of attachment, both physical and emotional, to another “living” person.
As written in the fifth preface on collective memory in Canada, “Michaela’s
physical presence and imaginative empathy awaken [Jakob] from his
Holocaust-haunted nightmares to a first morning of human connectedness.” Furthermore,
through their relationship, she also gives him “the first sleep of his life”
(182). Jakob feels a deep feeling of love and connectedness to Michaela.
Moreover, he discovers vital privileges such as sleep with her. In other words,
one could say she completes him. Hence, Michaela undoubtedly saves Jakob from
his trauma.
To conclude, it is clear that Michaela is not
only one of the main characters of Fugitive Pieces, but she is very important in different respects to
Jakob Beer – specifically through her physicality. There is such a graphic
representation of her body throughout their story because her physical presence
in his life manifests the beauty of life and empathy. In the end, her body will
rescue the protagonist from his traumatic experiences. Michaela’s body is
worthy of attention because, as Jacob writes, he is “saved by such a
small body” (183).
References
Michaels, Anne. Fugitive
Pieces. New York: Bloomsbury, 2009.
Schönfelder,
Christa. Discussion in class. 15 May 2012
Canadian Poetry. “Anne Michaels' Fugitive
Pieces”. Accessed on May 24 2012.
< http://canadianpoetry.org/volumes/vol41/preface.html>
