Held by Anne Michaels [6/10]

Canadian poet Anne Michaels has written three novels over two decades. Her latest, Held, is a slim lyrical set of twelve mini tales spanning 1902 to 2025 and four countries. Each story is a wisp of a tale, an impressionistic collection of fragments evoking love, suffering, longing and impermanence. The tales jump all over the timeline and their interconnections are sometimes clear and sometimes indeterminable. Michaels is a sweet, sweet stylist and reading any one page is a pleasure but some of the narratives left this reader cold. Highlights include the opening story about a soldier wounded amidst mud on a French World War I battlefield, a piece centering around a war zone combat nurse, and the harrowing story of an Estonian musician sent to exile. There is much to swoon about in Held but your reading experience will hinge around your capacity for indeterminacy and gossamer thin connections.