A review by slrsmith
The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels

Did not finish book.

Nope. Lost patience with this one rather quickly. Too fanciful, too disjointed and lacking in narrative. I scratched my head wondering what was going on within the first few pages when I got to a description of an early hominid three hundred thousand years ago appreciating a rock resembling the figure of a woman, and working the stone to improve the likeness. I gave up on page 44 when she describes the general feeling after the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway as people being afraid to swim in the river because of the bodies in the cemeteries that were flooded. Fanciful to say the least. I could get it if she was attributing this feeling to one character, but as a general feeling amongst the people? No. In reality, there are public beaches all along the affected area that the locals are more than happy to make use of. Still, I could forgive the fanciful, poetic license if I felt like we were going anywhere with it. However, 44 pages and all that has been established is that there are two characters called Jean and Avery, and they are both somehow witness to two dam projects, one in Canada and one in Egypt. The rest has basically been snippets of imagery, memories, musings, meditations etc. Yes, lives, ecosystems, archeology and livelihoods are affected by mass-scale dam projects but Michaels appears content to wallow in sentiment and nostalgia as a foil for the rationality of "progress". I really liked Fugitive Pieces but this one is, for me, a dud.