Barbara K.'s Reviews > Held

"Held" is one of a number of books on this year's Booker longlist that have tempted me. (I read Enlightenment before the list was published and I'm delighted to see it appear there.)

Michaels was a poet before becoming an author, and it shows throughout the book in both language and form. Consider this description of a couple who met by accident in a rural inn and became committed for life: “How many countless switch points had been necessary to bring them together at this table...?” Or this reflection on nature of life: "the constituent parts of our bodies make a soul".

The form of the book is fluid, like a running river that gurgles into side channels and pools that eventually rejoin the original, now changed by their absence and return. The vignettes that collectively constitute the book are scattered across a dozen times, from 1908 to 2025, and places, including England, France, Belarus, and Finland. Within each one we encounter multiple individuals and lyrical images of their life stories, often intertwined over the decades.

Michaels writes about the nature and persistence of love in the present and the way it extends to those who have died but whose presence remains alive in those they leave behind. The love experienced by her characters floats across that liminal distinction, overcoming the all-too-real gap between the living and dead.

The book opens on a WWI battlefield in France, with a wounded soldier drifting in and out of consciousness. Other battles, war zones, refugee camps and totalitarian states serve as backdrops to Michaels' message about the persistence of evil, love - and hope.

If you are fond of tight narrative structures you may not find this to your liking. Each short segment shimmers and fades, leaving behind a haunting, shadowy image that the reader must connect to what comes later.

Michaels herself narrates the audio version. In one way this enhanced my experience of the book, since her hushed voice provided additional context for her messages. And listening underscored the ephemeral nature of each small piece - it was there, and then it wasn't.

On the other hand, in some cases the prose is so gorgeous that it would have been pleasant to linger over phrases and images as they appeared on the page, something that is obviously missing from audio.

I was enchanted by the first two chapters, which make up nearly half the book; the next four chapters were nearly as good. But my enthusiasm waned in the final part, in which Michaels introduces characters and scenarios that serve to tie together the backstories of peripheral characters from the earlier sections. I would have been happy if she had stopped earlier; this felt a bit forced to me.

All in all, an exceptional book. I can see why it was long-listed, though I'm not sure it would be my choice for the short list.