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I know I am in the minority for this much-beloved book. It just didn’t work for me. Set in India in the 1970’s and beyond, a brother and sister, twins in an affluent family, seek love in life, as we … Continue reading
Tag Archives: prose poetry
This little novella is a wonderful train story with a lot of claustrophobic atmosphere and terrific language. I will shelve it with my small collection of “prose poetry,” along with books like Duras’s The Lover, Winterson’s Art and Lies, and … Continue reading
Fine writing is the main attraction of this novel, set in Japan and China immediately after WW II. Individual scenes and character gestures are sometimes done with such elegance and grace that the prose verges on poetry. “Until this, war … Continue reading
This is a very enjoyable read, although it makes no sense whatsoever, which is how I often feel about reading Faulkner, someone who I believe Flanagan had in mind here, along with the poet, Rimbaud. The story is structured roughly … Continue reading
There is a vaguely Faulknerian mood to this strange novel. In Faulkner’s work, dim-witted, almost subhuman characters passively bump their ways around Yoknapatawpha County. As a traditionalist, I’m not a fan of passive, aimless characters behaving pointlessly, but at least … Continue reading
Too Subtle For Words Briante, Susan (2011). The Market is a Parasite that Looks Like a Nest. Chicago: Dancing Girl Press. 16pp chapbook. www.dancinggirlpress.com. Susan Briante gave a poetry reading for the U of A Poetry center (http://poetry.arizona.edu/), in the … Continue reading
Second-Person in New York McInerney, Jay (1984). Bright Lights, Big City. New York: Vintage. This short (182 pp) novel of 1980’s New York City is widely praised as having nailed that period and place. I don’t know – I wasn’t … Continue reading
Writer as Artist DeLillo, Don (2001). The Body Artist. New York: Scribner. This short book (125 pp) by an acclaimed master novelist is perplexing, disturbing, and confusing, yet also haunting, dense, and impressive from a craft standpoint. What’s it about? … Continue reading
A Phenomenology of Love Winterson, Jeanette (1992) Written on the Body. New York: Vintage This is a love story, a poetic tale about an unnamed, first-person narrator and a married woman, Louise. Much has been made by reviewers about the … Continue reading
Otsuka, Julie, (2011). The Buddha in the Attic. New York: Random/Anchor. This short (129 page) prose-poem addresses the lives of Japanese women who came to San Francisco in the early 1900’s as mail-order brides for Japanese laborers already there. The … Continue reading