About the Book
1917. On a battlefield near the River Aisne, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory – a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night, his childhood on a faraway coast – as the snow falls.
1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near another river – alive, but not still whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and endeavours to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his ghosts whose messages he cannot understand.
So begins a narrative that spans four generations, moments of connection and consequence igniting and re-igniting as the century unfolds. In luminous moments of desire, comprehension, longing, transcendence, the sparks fly upward, working their transformations decades later.
Format: eARC (240 pages) Publisher: Bloomsbury Books
Publication date: 9th November 2023 Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
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My Review
I finished reading Held nearly two weeks ago but have been struggling to write a review of this beautifully poetic but enigmatic book. I say enigmatic because characters’ thoughts often move imperceptibly between past and present. This is particularly the case in the first section of the book.
The book’s title is reflected in numerous ways: the physical act of being held, of being held in another’s memory or the force that holds two things together, such as an apple clutched in a hand. There are scenes of tenderness and intimacy, many of which are incredibly moving. One in particular, in which a woman lies in a bath cradling her dying husband, moved me to tears.
Objects, clothing or traditional customs provide connections between one generation and the next. Photography is a recurring motif. And there is subtle use of repetition with little details that bring to mind previous scenes. For example, a character remembering another person’s gestures – ‘how you held a glass, or a pen, or a fork and knife’ – or habits – ‘whether you opened and read a magazine from the front cover or the back’ – as a way of bringing them back to life, as it were. Or as evidence of intimate knowledge of another person. ‘Her small ways known only to him. That she matched her socks to her scarf even when no one could see them in her boots. That she kept beside the bed, superstitiously unfinished, the novel she had been reading the day they understood they would always be together… The boiled sweet tin she kept her foreign change in.’
Held‘s fluid narrative structure may not be to every reader’s taste but the beauty of the language (unsurprising perhaps given the author is a poet) makes it a rewarding read. Just go with the flow is my advice, as if listening to a piece of classical music that has moments of intensity interspersed with stillness.
I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Books via NetGalley.
In three words: Lyrical, moving, intimate
Try something similar: North Woods by Daniel Mason
About the Author
Anne Michaels’ books have been translated into more than forty-five languages and have won dozens of international awards, including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Lannan Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Americas. She is the recipient of honorary degrees, the Guggenheim Fellowship and many other honours. She has been shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, twice shortlisted for the Giller Prize and twice longlisted for the IMPAC Award. Her novel, Fugitive Pieces, was adapted as a feature film. From 2015 to 2019, she was Toronto’s Poet Laureate. (Photo/bio: Author website)
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