John Taylor

Book Review: The “Lightweight” Gallows Humor of Jean Echenoz

May 29, 2014
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Eschewing harrowing realistic description, Jean Echenoz adopts a jocular sardonic approach to the most gruesome battlefield realities.

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Book Review: “On Leave” — An Engaging Anti-War Story From France

May 28, 2014
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“On Leave” is a worthwhile novel that deserves this English revival because it convincingly conveys the alienation felt by soldiers who return home on a brief leave from hostilities taking place abroad.

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Book Review: Pierre Michon and his Many Artistic “Lives”

March 31, 2014
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The books are bleak in that Pierre Michon provides no reassuring, idealistic view of the creative urge. Art leads to no transcendence, no permanent uplifting sentiment. Making poems or making pictures is a rough daily business.

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Book Review: Philippe Jaccottet’s “Seedtime” — Exploring the Inherent Mysteries of the World As It Is

February 21, 2014
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French writer Philippe Jaccottet’s ever-questioning poetic analyses of haunting ephemeral perceptions are carried on with such scruple and sincerity that, for his European peers, he has become the model of literary integrity.

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Book Review: The Poetry of Pierre Reverdy — The Search for Purity

January 31, 2014
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Pierre Reverdy’s poetry that is suspicious of the deceiving beauty of words, hence its pared-down, elemental, stylistic qualities.

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Poetry Review: The Unexpected Compassion of German Poet Gottfried Benn

November 25, 2013
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A collection of poems and essays by the admired German poet Gottfried Benn, who, because of his brief association with Nazism, has been absent from our mainstream, non-specialized, English-language view of modern German poetry.

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Poetry Review: The Dark of Love –The Poetry of Patrizia Cavalli

September 18, 2013
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If Patrizia Cavalli’s poetry is egocentric, even probably autobiographical, its narrator shows a detachment enabling her to observe herself from one remove, even when she describes herself in the élans of attraction.

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Book Review: “Scissors” — A Sharp Exploration of the Creative Process

August 26, 2013
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Scissors is a roman à clef. But Stéphane Michaka has not composed a fictionalized biography mapping out the itinerary of Raymond Carver’s life. The novelist above all focuses on the creative process in which a writer named “Raymond” is involved.

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Book Review: From France with “L’Amour” — A Neglected Volume by Marguerite Duras

July 9, 2013
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For those of you who have never read Marguerite Duras, “L’Amour” is an invigorating place to start.

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Poetry Review: A Spanish Metaphysical Poet Searching for Songs of Truth

June 25, 2013
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Poet José Ángel Valente deeply considered what kind of lyricism remains legitimate; that is, truthful, not deceptive; a song that moves us to truth, not a Siren’s song.

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