The plot follows a couple named Jean and Avery who fall in love working along the St. Lawrence River and move to Egypt for Avery's work. I'm not entirely sure what he does but it seems like he's some sort of geographical engineer (is that a thing?) who consults and leads projects related to the changing of landscapes (adding dams, highways, etc.). A major mistake is made on the project in Egypt and parallel, a number of challenges and traumas present themselves in Jean and Avery's marriage. The second half of the book follows the two of them back in Canada working on their lives and trying to find a way to re-connect.
Michaels is Canadian so the parts of the plot that aren't in Egypt are in Toronto and Montreal. I really enjoy reading about familiar settings, it sort of grounds the characters and makes the story feel more real. I also really enjoy reading about crumbling marriages so there was a lot of good subject matter and I went into reading it with really high hopes.
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Anne Michaels |
Reading The Winter Vault reminded me of all the things I loved about Michaels' writing from Fugitive Pieces. It's very obvious she's a poet as she writes with very flowery and abstract language. Every paragraph has its own existentialism to it. The imagery is detailed, I can feel the characters' emotions really well, etc. The challenge with this, which I don't remember from Fugitive Pieces, is it became insanely hard to keep up with the plot. There were so many times when I got caught up in the writing itself and had no idea what was happening to the story. A re-read could maybe help me out but I don't have the stamina for it.
I wonder if studying Fugitive Pieces in school helped me overcome this same challenge. I studied it chapter by chapter with an experienced lit professor and a room full of bushy-eyed readers and the magnifying glass of that experience maybe helped because I really did love that book. Or, it was just easier to read. I'd love to go back to it soon and say for sure.
In her attempt to rehabilitate herself emotionally when they return from Egypt, Jean meets a man named Lucjan and begins a sort of weird, intimate relationship with him. Lucjan is a holocaust survivor and once Jean meets him the holocaust becomes a big part of the story. Michaels creates all kind of parallels between all of the characters' experiences and they teach each other about loss, grief, and remembering.
My favourite parts of the book were about Avery's job. He works to change landscapes but he is very emotionally affected by how his job affects the people who live on them. Human geography has never interested me in the slightest but in this particular context I was really fascinated by it.
I can't think of anyone I know who would like this unfortunately. I feel like it would have been better formatted as a poetry series, but what do I know? The writing is very dreamy and beautiful but sometimes simple is best for the sake of storytelling, in my opinion. I'm sure a lit prof could have me convinced that this is the greatest piece of Canadian writing going but I'm not in lit class anymore.
I will just end with my favourite passage in the whole book. Jean is remembering when her mother died when she was younger and I just feel like I can imagine this exact scenario and it's so frigging sad:
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