Commentary |
on Chasing Homer, a novel by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by John Batki
“Persecution-induced insanity and existential angst take alternately frightening and comic turns in his panicked sentences, with justifiable terror or mad delusion possible explanations for his character’s absurdist ranting.”
Commentary |
on One Certain Thing, poems by Peter Cooley
“What surprised me was seeing that he does find acceptance, not by giving up his attachment and finding a substitute, but rather through his faith in poetry as a requiem of devotion.”
Commentary |
on Pollak’s Arm, a novel by Hans von Trotha, translated from German by Elisabeth Lauffer
“The novel hinges on the arm of Laocoön, which came to be known as “Pollak’s arm” after he recognized it in a pile of rubble. Previously a reconstructed arm had been placed on the statue.”
Commentary |
on My Deniversity: Knowing Denise Levertov, a memoir by Mark Pawlak
“A magnetic, intense presence and passionate talker whose gestures vigorously punctuate her words, Levertov is a model for Pawlak and other young writers who started as students and styled themselves into poets.”
Commentary |
Book Notes: on Mysterious Solidarities by Pasqual Quignard, In the Eye of the Wild by Nastassja Martin, and Campaign of the Century by Irwin F. Gellman
“There is a line, a sentence in Clarice Lispector’s The Hour of the Star, that evokes for me a certain dynamic in poetry and lyric prose. She wrote, ‘The facts are sonorous but among the facts there is a murmuring.'”
Commentary |
on Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories by Tadeusz Borowski, translated from the Polish by Madeline G. Levine
“Borowski, who told the stories of death by sugar beet, of the will to live so strong it disavows a child, of the brutal pleasure of revenge, courageously called things by their names, no matter how dark the implications.”
Commentary |
on South To America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, nonfiction by Imani Perry
“If our understanding of the region is to change, Perry argues, we will have to take two contradictory tacks. First is to recognize the diversity of the region. But alongside that, she wants us to recognize the South’s ‘changing same’ …”
Commentary |
on Afterparties, stories by Anthony Veasna So
“These stories are powerful dioramas of historical trauma, but that’s only part of Afterparties’ dark allure. Despite his youth, So was already a master of technique.”
Commentary |
Book Notes: on Asked What Has Changed, poems by Ed Roberson & Autumn Rounds, a novel by Jacques Poulin, translated by Sheila Fischman
“His poems are neither ‘about’ the environment nor a morally pristine persona who seeks credit for caring about it. He invests instead in a process on the page, generating intellectual and sonic structures intended to create a shaken-up collective awareness.”
Commentary |
on I name him me, poems by Ma Yan (马雁), translated from the Chinese by Stephen Nashef
“What do sufferings long for? Where do they reside? What are their emotional valences? In these poems, sufferings establish enduring relationships with humans and inform wisdom.”
Commentary |
on The Interim, a novel by Wolfgang Hilbig, translated from the German by Isabel Fargo Cole
“Hilbig’s indictments are so trenchant that they preclude the possibility that anyone may avoid implication in the century’s crimes. He implicitly blames a communal fecklessness.”
Commentary |
on Bright Burning Things, a novel by Lisa Harding
“Harding’s depiction of an alcoholic’s path to recovery is exceptional in its psychological acuity. She depicts a desperate struggle with sorrow and addiction, drawing the reader into a vortex of helplessness.”
Commentary |
on White On White, a novel by Ayşegül Savaş
“Savaş, impressively, has at once deposited her readers in the literary equivalent of a clean room — the prose is unaffected, straightforward, easily graceful — and dumped us into a fog.”
Commentary |
on Hallelujah Time, poems by Virginia Konchan
“Like any good siren, she beckons us towards our apocalypse, without providing solutions for how to save ourselves, let alone save the earth.”
Commentary |
on The Anomaly, a novel by Hervé Le Tellier, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter
“Le Tellier’s playful writing, as well as his takes on existence, second chances, and personal identity, push his ambitious narrative into realms rarely encountered in popular culture.”