900. Fugitive Pieces

Fugitive Pieces

Anne Michaels
1996
Around 300 pages

900! Goodness. 101 more to go! I actually think it's more dramatic when we get to the "100 left" milestone, but we can celebrate this as well. Is the end actually nigh? 

The story is divided into two sections, one concerning Jakob Beer, a Polish Holocaust survivor and orphan who is taken in by a Greek archaeologist, and one involving the son of two Holocaust survivors.

This List is skewed toward more recent novels, and I think I am getting that sense as we work through the 90s. Which I maintain is recent, dammit. It just feels overstuffed with okay, inoffensive novels that don't leave much of an impression. And I would definitely place Fugitive Pieces in that category.

It has all the makings of Oscar winning drama, so I was unsurprised that it was adapted to the big screen. I had some trouble getting into this one, with the disjointed narrative that didn't have as much emotional resonance as the author intended.

Hoping we get out of this slump soon, although maybe the List now is like a sitcom on its ninth season, an unfunny parody of its former self. Or wait, maybe that's just me.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Adapted to film in 2007.

BBC News listed Fugitive Pieces on its list of the 100 most influential novels.

UP NEXT: Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker