Reading Group Guide
Fugitive Pieces
by Anne Michaels
About This Book
The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of Anne Michaels's Fugitive Pieces. We hope they will aid your understanding of the many rich themes that make up this radiant and lyrical first novel by one of Canada's foremost poets.
In Poland during World War II, seven-year-old Jakob Beer's parents are murdered by Nazi soldiers and his adored elder sister, Bella, is abducted. The mourning child flees and is miraculously rescued by Athos Roussos, a Greek geologist. Athos smuggles Jakob to his native island of Zakynthos, where he successfully hides him from the Nazi authorities and introduces him to a new world of geology, poetry, botany, and art. After the war the two move to Toronto, and Jakob embarks on marriage and a career as a poet. Through the experience of profound love, Jakob eventually transcends the tragedies of his youth; but his spirit remains forever linked with that of his lost sister. As Jakob gets older, his life and work provide inspiration and, eventually, spiritual regeneration, for Ben, a younger man whose own family has been blighted by the Holocaust.
Fugitive Pieces is an incandescent novel, heartbreaking and finally joyful. Its vivid images, its poetry and its wisdom will prove unforgettable.
1. Why is the first section of the novel entitled "The Drowned City?" Why is the title repeated for a later section?
2. Jakob says that Athos's fascination with Antarctica "was to become our azimuth. It was to direct the course of our lives" [33]. Why do you think Antarctica obsessed Athos? How does the story of the Scott expedition relate to that of Athos and Jakob? Do you agree with Jakob that Athos's fascination directed their lives?
3. "When the prisoners were forced to dig up the mass graves, the dead entered them through their pores and were carried through their bloodstreams to their brains and hearts. And through their blood into another generation" [52], Jakob writes, and later, "It's no metaphor to feel the influence of the dead in the world" [53]. How does the theme of the dead's influence on the living work itself out in the course of the novel?
4. The communist partisans in Greece, who had valiantly resisted the occupying Nazis, themselves committed terrible atrocities after the war, as Kostas and Daphne relate. Do you agree with their theory that violence is like an illness that can be caught, and that the Greeks caught it from the Germans [72]? What other explanations can be offered?
5. "I already knew the power of language to destroy, to omit, to obliterate," says Jakob. "But poetry, the power of language to restore: this was what both Athos and Kostas were trying to teach me" [79]. What instances does the novel give of the destructive power of language? In what ways does writing--both the writing of poetry and of translations--help to heal and restore Jakob? Does silence--the cessation of language--have its own function, and if so, what might it be?
6. "We were a vine and a fence. But who was the vine? We would both have answered differently" [108]. Here Jakob is speaking of his relationship with Athos; of what other relationships in the novel might this metaphor be used? Does Michaels imply that dependence is an integral part of love?
7. What is it about Alex's character that attracts Jakob and makes him fall in love with her? Why does he eventually find life with her impossible? Do you find Alex a sympathetic character, or an unpleasant one?
8. "History is amoral: events occurred. But memory is moral" [138]. "Every moment is two moments" [161]. How does Jakob define and differentiate history and memory? Can you see Fugitive Pieces as a comparison of history and memory?
9. Music is an important element of Fugitive Pieces, and it is central to the lives of at least three of the characters, Bella, Alex, and Naomi. What does music mean to each of these characters? Why has Michaels given music such a prominent metaphoric role in the novel?
10. What does Fugitive Pieces say about the condition of being an immigrant? Jakob never feels truly at home anywhere, even in Greece. Ben's parents feel that their toehold in their new home is infinitely precarious, an emotion that communicates itself to Ben. Does Michaels imply that real integration is impossible?
11. Can you explain the very different reactions Ben's parents have had to their experience in the Holocaust? What in their characters has determined the differing ways they respond to grief and loss?
12. The relationship between Ben and Naomi is a troubled one. Why is he angry at her for her closeness to his parents and her attention to their graves? Why does he reject her by leaving for Greece without her? How can you explain his intense desire for Petra--is his need purely physical? How do Petra and Naomi differ? What is the significance of their names?
13. Science has as important a role in the novel as poetry and music. Why is geology so important to Athos, meteorology to Ben? Does science represent a standard of disinterested truth, or does it merely symbolize the world's terrifying contingency?
14. Why might Jakob have named his collection of poems Groundwork, and in what way does that title relate to his life? Jakob calls his young self a "bog-boy" [5]. Why does Ben take such an interest in the preserved bog people he reads about [221]?
15. The last line of the novel is Ben's: "I see that I must give what I most need." What does he mean by this? What does he most need, what will he give, and to whom?
16. What is the significance of the novel's title? What do "pieces," or "fragments," mean within Michaels's scheme? Where in the novel can you find references to fragments?
Lucretius: an Epicurean poet who wrote in hexameter during the first century BCE.
ReplyDeleteDioscorides: a Greek physician, botanist, and pharmacologist who practiced in Ancient Rome during the time of Nero’s rule.
Scott Expedition: From 1910-1913, the British Antarctic Expedition set out to explore Antarctica and reach the South Pole to secure the rights of the British Empire. All of the explorers, including Captain Robert Falcon Scott, died.
Theophrastus: a Greek who succeeded Aristotle and studied a variety of topics, including grammar, language, and metaphysics.
Venus of Willendorf: a 4 and 3/8 inch high statue estimated to have been created between 24,000 to 22,000 BCE. She represents fertility and has exaggerated sexual features.
Broken spectre: when a shadow is cast upon a cloud when an observer is standing on a mountaintop.
Pennines: a low-rising mountain range in northern England and southern Scotland. Natural History (Pliny): an encyclopedia that is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire. Covers the entire field of ancient knowledge.
Zohar: the most important work of Kabbalah and is mystical commentary on the Torah.
Paraselena at McMurdo Sound: http://www.edwardawilson.com/life/11TNova.shtml
Meredith, Mary, Amanda.
4. I do agree with Kostas and Daphne about catching violence like an illness. People like the Greeks were tread on by the Germans for so long that they almost didn't know anything else. The people didn't know how to do anything else. So when the Communists committed atrocities, it was bad, but it was also, in some ways, just a continuation of the norm. There are, of course, alternatives. But I think people feel like they deserve to get justice for what happened to them, and in this instance, it seemed like it was justice to do the same to others. They were fighting fire with fire.
ReplyDelete5. In many ways, the book shows the power of language to heal. I think that Jakob is currently blind to it because of the destructive power of his entire life. He has only know destruction at the hands of language. He is now learning to heal iwth language, between his poetry and his work as a translator.
4. The communist partisans in Greece, who had valiantly resisted the occupying Nazis, themselves committed terrible atrocities after the war, as Kostas and Daphne relate. Do you agree with their theory that violence is like an illness that can be caught, and that the Greeks caught it from the Germans [72]? What other explanations can be offered?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Fugitive Pieces and The Things They Carried, I do see how Kostas and Daphne believe that violence is an illness. When put in a situation where violence runs rampant, the lines between what is good and what is evil are blurred. If someone is hurt, they in turn hurt others. The Greeks got caught up in the violence and didn't know how to channel it after the Germans left. Another explanation can probably be that the Greeks were so devastated by the German warfare that they didn't know how to react anymore.
5."I already knew the power of language to destroy, to omit, to obliterate," says Jakob. "But poetry, the power of language to restore: this was what both Athos and Kostas were trying to teach me" [79]. What instances does the novel give of the destructive power of language? In what ways does writing--both the writing of poetry and of translations--help to heal and restore Jakob? Does silence--the cessation of language--have its own function, and if so, what might it be?
The first example of that comes to my mind when discussing the destructive power of language is in the first chapter of the novel when the only phrase that Jakob can speak in different languages is "Dirty Jew". Poetry and translating give Jakob an outlet for the pain he has inside of him. He can express himself through the writing. Silence mostly eats away at people. They hold these strong feelings to themselves and let it control how they act because they are unable to express themselves.
4. Often victims of violence resort to violent tendencies as a reaction to the hurt they feel. Humans do not like to suffer alone, so when they feel pain, they often make sure that others can share in the hurt they feel. This was most likely the case with the Greeks after interacting with the Germans.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Greeks are a very cultural people, and when their culture was disrupted, they most likely felt that they must reciprocate in order to restore the dignity of their heritage.
5. Anne Michaels definitely proves that language can be destructive. In the descriptions of Bella, and the taking of the Greek Jews, she illustrates that words can be detrimental to the psyche.
Through writing poetry and translating, Jakob can enter into another world. Also, it allows him to express the feelings he is often afraid to say out loud. Thus, writing for Jakob is both an escape from reality and a chance to face his emotions.
Savannah Jean Goole
ReplyDeleteFugitive pieces response
Creative Style
9/22/09
4.) I agree with the theory that violence is an illness that can be caught. I also agree that the Greeks caught it from the Germans. I think they did so because they saw the harm the Germans could do to entire races at a time. I think the Greeks acted as such in way of defense. They may have thought, violence seems to be the way to be on-top. So, if we are violent as well, we won’t be weak, and therefore, not a target. People whom are (or become) violent in nature “work well” with people that act the same way, I believe.
5.) Writing, and poetry are like a therapy for him. To get his story out, in a way that is telling it in a more, sensitive, style is probably much better than anything else he can do. Silence kills memory. It hardens history, and in most cases, I think, it creates a fear of what happened. Silence usually only let’s the bad be heard, it let’s the bad be what is remembered.
4) I understand how this seems. People often seek great revenge and action against the violence that ruined their own lives. I understand that violence can mentally blow people’s minds out of proportion, leading them to hurt the people surrounding them. However, I don’t think that violence automatically yields more violence and total war, but it doesn’t calm instincts and ease revenge. These communists may have acted out of pain and sorrow, or, as time went on, the atrocities they committed felt less wrong to them.
ReplyDelete5) Jakob knew the destructive power of language from past experience and the stories that he learned as he grew older. The stories themselves were hurtful; the truth was hurtful in the sense that it made the world less innocent. Nevertheless, these stories, even ones such as Helen dying, can also help by drawing a meaning and message out of that truth. It is most often better to understand a very “real” truth than to go on not even knowing that there is a greater truth to discover. Silence doesn’t kill the memory; it simply doesn’t allow for it. It distorts it. These stories and translations age Jakob, for better or for worse, but he becomes wiser. They restore his memory and help him to understand more of his setting- his time and place. He also learns how writing can bring people together. Songs can even inspire people, such as Kostas the night he asked Daphne to marry him. Silence can only protect people (children) to a certain point. They are a shield, and that shield eventually gets too dented to use effectively.
4. The communist partisans in Greece, who had valiantly resisted the occupying Nazis, themselves committed terrible atrocities after the war, as Kostas and Daphne relate. Do you agree with their theory that violence is like an illness that can be caught, and that the Greeks caught it from the Germans [72]? What other explanations can be offered?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kostas and Daphne. Violence is definitely like an illness that can be caught. It is always natural for human beings to mimic one another in times of despair especially if they know no other way to react. When one is attacked with violence of any sort (physical, emotional, verbal) their first reaction is to also be violent. I believe that in this sense, violence does act like an illness.
5. "I already knew the power of language to destroy, to omit, to obliterate," says Jakob. "But poetry, the power of language to restore: this was what both Athos and Kostas were trying to teach me" [79]. What instances does the novel give of the destructive power of language? In what ways does writing--both the writing of poetry and of translations--help to heal and restore Jakob? Does silence--the cessation of language--have its own function, and if so, what might it be?
Rather simply, language is destructive when it hurts another’s feelings. One example is when the Germans refer to the Jews as dirty and Jakob unknowingly mimics them. Writing helps to heal and restore Jakob by giving him a new history in order to replace what he has forgotten. By reading and writing poetry he can express himself in a new language and release bottled up emotions in ways that he has never done before. The cessation of language kills culture and a person’s ability to speak. The variety of languages that exist in this world define each and every human being. Without the Hebrew language Jakob doesn’t have a culture.
Kostas and Daphne are definitively right. It is truly an illness that can be caught and spread, just like hatred can be. Before the Germans began with their torture the Greeks didnt do it.
ReplyDeleteThe use of words and poetry can be used for healing. Soothing calming words, even poetice music acn be used to heal,
4. I agree with the theory of violence as an illness. It's sort of an eye-for-an-eye type of thing that results in a vicious cycle of attack and revenge. The Greeks probably reacted to the Germans as a way of both revenge and self-defense.
ReplyDelete5. Early on in the novel, the destructive power of language is revealed when Jakob repeats the phrase "dirty Jew" in three languages. This demonstrates the damaging power of words to hurt, oppress, and show hatred. For Jakob, having been brought up among Yiddish, Greek, and English tongues, translating and writing are ways to bring these worlds together. In poetry, he is able to make terrible facts into beautiful language. But although Jakob is surrounded by language, he is also haunted by gaps of memory and silence--the silence of his sister Bella, whose fate remains unknown. In this silence, Jakob continues to cling to Bella because he does not know enough information to enable him to let go.
4- i agree because it is evident. when a war is started people fight back. when one commits an act of violence its only instinct to respond violently. In other words. When one is violent against another it makes the one being victim to violence be violent.
ReplyDelete5- often times poetry is relaxing and brings out thoughts in people that they never really thought of. Poetry can also be angsty though and make people get emotional or upset. In other words people react differently to poetry especially if its metaphoric. when Jakob repeated the words "dirty Jew"it made him sound hateful and mean. The fact that he said it in multiple languages had a bigger affect. This is something he picked up on not something he thought out on his own. But still the words were hurtful and destructive toward others. Some times silence is better then being out spoken, it sometimes has a bigger affect. Jakob doesn't really speak much do to the horrible thing that he has gone through and has witnessed.