Anne Michaels (2023) Held.

I read every day. Less than 1% of what I read is poetry. And Ann Michaels Held  isn’t a poetry book. But it’s got that feel about it. I checked the number of pages. 220. Because I also write, I’d estimate that’s between 60 000 to 80 000 words. I’d like to be more precise. It’s been a couple of days since I finished it (meaning to review it) and had to look at the Contents page.

Now we’re getting somewhere. The first six chapters are labelled River (Escaut, Esk, Westboure, Orwell, Orwell, Orwell). Orwell is in Suffolk, but the chapter dates differ. 1984—1964—1984.

Time split, how things change but remain the same. Can’t remember what was the same or different.

Chapter XII, ends in The Gulf of Finland, 2025.

Michaels is writing a novel about the past, but also the future (since her book was published in 2023).

Rachel Joyce has a quote on the cover: ‘Exquisite…I am in awe.’   By the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

But that is duplicitous. ‘Winner of the women’s prize for fiction,’ is above the type face of ANNE MICHAELS (in red ink). A casual reader would assume Michaels won this prize. I check the back cover and indeed she has, formerly the Orange Prize. She also been awarded a Guggenheim Award and won countless other international prizes.

I’m out of my depth. A soldier dying during the first world war. A woman, women plural, in love. An artist in France.  A photographer that is doing his best to get by. Taking pictures of families and those that can pay for mementoes.  A Scottish assistant that helps him. Something amiss. A man that hooks up with a woman. True love. But she needs to go because she’s needed. And she needs to be needed. One last time, part of a medical team doing essential work in an unnamed country that is bombing and shooting people including the medical staff. We know she’ll not return.

Held. Read on.

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