The volume’s spirited imagination is strong enough to compensate for flaws in its translation.
World Books
Poetry Review: “Outside” — Poetry and Prose of French Writer André du Bouchet.
Take the poems slowly, enjoy the Cage-y silences, the concentrated words as they appear.
Poetry Review: Poems, Not Artifacts — “New Poets of Native Nations” and a “Poets Playlist” at the Peabody
Editor Heidi E. Erdrich has brought together a richly varied selection of poems, chosen from first collections of poetry written by twenty-one Native poets since the year 2000.
Book Review: “To the Back of Beyond” — Extreme Ambiguity
Evidently, plain-spoken language plus doubt and apprehension equate to novels that, once opened, are very hard to put down.
Book Interview: Thomas Kitson on a Neglected Gem of Russian Modernism
Iliazd is more interested in working through all the possible reasons that generate behavior rather than grappling with issues of morality.
Book Review: “Our Dead World” — Testaments to the Never Quite Absent
Bolivian author Liliana Colanzi delivers some risky, but important, messages in these enigmatic stories.
Book Review: “Rapture” — Modernism, Daredevil Style
Rapture is a worthwhile curio that grapples, entertainingly, with Modernism’s artistic, structural, and revolutionary quandaries.
Book Review: Polish Poet Czesław Miłosz — Master of the Telling Detail
For a reader without the reference points of mid-twentieth century Lithuania and Poland, this deeply researched biography can be a slog.
Book Review: Gershom Scholem — A Rich and Complicated Jewish Life
George Prochnik’s biography of Gershom Scholem is flawed, but well worth reading, especially for those struggling with their Jewish and Israeli identities.
Book Review: “The Dogs of Inishere” — The Ambiguities of Desire
Alannah Hopkin demonstrates a near impeccable sense of craft, including a talent for coming up with surprises.