Infinite Gradation
$19.95
Winner of the 2019 Vine Jewish Book award for non-fiction.
“This slender volume…is a profound exploration of the transformative power of art in a world where ‘the extremes of cruelty and/compassion, of horror and empathy,/exist side-by-side.’ Some passages are meditations on the work of specific artists or writers, others are more generally philosophical about the moral responsibility of the writer, and some address a loved one who is present only in memory. Indeed, death haunts this book. Michaels’ own gift for transformation is through metaphor; she compares a sculptor’s work of polished stone to ‘the shine on a black whale/breaching the sea,’ and goes further still: ‘In your hands the stone became glass,/ it became water,/ a dark pool you could/step into and disappear.’ Elsewhere she writes, ‘A poem is the mortal gaze, a way of/holding experience.’ Infinite Gradation is itself “a way of holding experience” and as such, it’s a treasure.” —Toronto Star
Infinite Gradation is an astonishing meditation on what art makes of death, and the moral, emotional, and philosophical implications of love and the creative act. In lines as precise and profound as any Michaels has written, it is also a lyrically compelling praise song to love and the enduring mysteries at the core of existence. Michaels considers the lives of certain artists and writers – Paul Celan, Jack Chambers, Eva Hesse, Etty Hillesum, Nelly Sachs and Claire Wilks – who have made work at the limits of experience, in remarkably different situations.
In lines as precise and profound as any Michaels has written, Infinite Gradation movingly explores the nature of responsibility in extremis and the forms it takes – it is about hope in art, what art makes of death, and bears witness to the love and lives of visual artists and writers who have made work at the limits of experience.
Infinite Gradation finds its way to a most powerful solace.
Anne Michaels is an internationally acclaimed, best-selling novelist and poet. Her books have been translated into over 45 languages, and have won dozens of international awards, including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Lannan Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. She is a Guggenheim Fellow. She has been shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and longlisted for the IMPAC Award (twice). Her novel, Fugitive Pieces, was adapted as a feature film. Her latest book of poetry, All We Saw, was published in 2017.
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