Review

rev. of The Dual Tradition by Thomas Kinsella

The Dual Tradition An Essay on Poetry and Politics in Ireland, by Thomas Kinsella. Carcanet Press, $17.95 paper. Reviewed by M. L. Rosenthal. Irish poetry has had a long, trauma-beset journey. In his book The Dual Tradition: An Essay on Poetry and Politics in Ireland, Thomas Kinsella leads us through its successive periods of…

rev. of Some Ether by Nick Flynn

Some Ether Poems by Nick Flynn. Graywolf Press, $12.95 paper. Reviewed by Tony Hoagland. Someday the term confessional will seem as quaint and obsolete as a fainting couch, and we will have a new terminology, one that feels more discriminating. In the meantime, we have Nick Flynn’s compelling poems, which turn some rather extreme autobiographical…

rev. of The Barbarians Are Coming by David Wong Louie

The Barbarians Are Coming A novel by David Wong Louie. Putnam, $23.95 cloth. Reviewed by Don Lee. Sterling Lung has problems. The narrator of David Wong Louie’s first novel, The Barbarians Are Coming, is a recent graduate of the CIA — the Culinary Institute of America — and he has landed what he regards as…

The Dumbbell Nebula by Steve Kowit

Jane Hirshfield recommends The Dumbbell Nebula, poems by Steve Kowit: “A book of rangy, big-hearted, capacious poems, full of surprising wisdoms and affection for the world as it is.” (Heyday)

Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa by Charles Nicholl

Charles Baxter recommends Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa, a biography by Charles Nicholl: “An eerie, brilliant, and weirdly comic story about a poet who gradually became a real-life Joseph Conrad character.” (Chicago)

rev. of The Best of the West #4 an anthology edited by James and Denise Thomas

The West is a place of myth, legend, and genre. "Call it a geography of the heart — a geological survey of western literary imagination," write the editors. The stories in this collection were chosen not necessarily because they are from and about the region, but because they follow a tradition in theme and setting,…

rev. of The Easter Parade by Richard Yates

In Delmore Schwartz's short story, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, the protagonist imagines a film of his parents' courtship. He watches in impotent anguish for a while as they move inexorably toward their future and his, and then he stands suddenly and shouts to them not to do it, that nothing good can ever come of…

Someone to Watch Over Me by Richard Bausch

George Garrettrecommends Someone to Watch Over Me, stories by Richard Bausch: “Twelve new stories by one of the most gifted short fiction writers alive and writing.” (HarperCollins)

The Black Notebooks by Toi Derricotte

Maxine Kumin recommends The Black Notebooks, a memoir by Toi Derricotte: “Searing. Read it.” (Norton)