Tag Archives: summer 2004

Trouble in Mind

Lucie Brock-Broido Alfred A Knopf ($23) by A. A. Farman There are at least two things to be thankful for in Lucie Brock-Broido's burnished book of new poems, Trouble in Mind. First, that it has finally appeared. Second, that it has taken so long to appear. Brock-Broido takes her time, publishing a volume every seven […]

Living in the Past

Philip Schultz Harcourt ($23) by Maureen Picard Robins In 1980, I encountered Philip Schultz's Like Wings, and spent the day walking around New York City in a daze. Here were 55 pages of urban poetry, featuring wide, far-reaching stanzas packed with sweat, desire, and the stink of the past. Schultz's poems shuddered with passion, despair, […]

The Columbia Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry

Edited by David R. McCann Columbia University Press ($22.50) by Sun Yung Shin Koreans have been writing poetry since the rise of their civilization; the earliest extant poem, composed by King Yuri in Chinese characters, dates from ca. 19 B.C. This new book, The Columbia Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry, does English speakers a great […]

The Escape

Jo Ann Wasserman Futurepoem Books ($14) by Michelle Mitchell-Foust My two hands began a fight," Franz Kafka writes in The Blue Octavo Notebooks, "I never turned my gaze from them. If they are my hands, I must referee fairly, otherwise I shall bring down on myself the agonies of a wrong decision." In Jo Ann […]

Fathom | Neo-Surrealism; or, the Sun at Night

Fathom Black Square Editions ($12.95) Neo-Surrealism; or, the Sun at Night: Transformations of Surrealism in American Poetry 1966-1999 Black Square Editions ($7) Andrew Joron by Noah Eli Gordon Hovering somewhere in the ether, outside of any tangible definitions, the practice of Neo-Surrealism takes place, and Andrew Joron is both participant and elucidator. He uses the […]

Assembling Art: The Machine and the American Avant-Garde

Barbara Zabel University Press of Mississippi ($45) by Stacy Brix In the early 20th century, America began to leave behind the romantic values of imagination, emotion, and interest in the past, and plunge forward into the age of the machine. While the country adopted a drive for objective reality and an increasingly controlled human environment, […]

Responsibility and Judgment | The Origins of Totalitarianism

Responsibility and Judgment Schocken Books ($25) The Origins of Totalitarianism Schocken Books ($25) Hannah Arendt by Rick Canning Reading Hannah Arendt is a sober and sobering undertaking, and one reason for this is her business-like manner. She doesn't horse around. Her titles usually announce a weighty subject—The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Life of the Mind, […]

Restoring the Burnt Child: A Primer

William Kloefkorn University of Nebraska Press ($22) by James Walkowiak Following his acclaimed memoir This Death by Drowning, William Kloefkorn's Restoring the Burnt Child continues grappling with how 1940s middle America shaped its boys into men. A spirit of gamesmanship permeates the entire book, infusing the story with nostalgia and muted terror. The narrative, recounting […]

Mexico: The Revolution and Beyond | Mexico/New York

Mexico: The Revolution and Beyond Agustin Victor Casasola Essay by Pete Hamill Aperture ($50) Mexico/New York Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans Introduction by Roberto Tejada Mexico Editorial RM / D.A.P. ($60) by John Toren Photojournalist? Photographer? Artist? Historians have found it difficult to place Agustin Victor Casasola comfortably within the pantheon of modern […]