What would you like to see in our collection? This blog's for you! As your library liason for English, Communication & Literature, I will post regular entries of reviews I have read with links to the more colorful entries on Amazon. You can email me (kweber@coloradomtn.edu) or use the comments feature of this blog to let me know what you'd like for us to order, or even what kinds off reviews you'd like to see. Let's get started! Kristin
Literature Reviews from August 2007 Library Journal
American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics. Wesleyan Univ. 2007. c.406p. ed. by Claudia Rankine & Lisa Sewell. ISBN 978-0-8195-6727-7. $75; pap. ISBN 978-0-8195-6728-4. $27.95 with audio CD. LIT
Based on the sample of poets in this book, one might think that 21st-century poetry is more grounded in language and sound than in concrete images or personal confessions. Even at its most avant-garde, the poetry that editors Rankine (Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric) and Sewell (Name Withheld) here present is often formal, e.g., Kenneth Goldsmith's versified retyping of an entire issue of the New York Times. The accompanying CD of the poets reading their work makes it possible to hear Tracie Morris's sound poems, which could not be reproduced in print. More traditional poets include Juliana Spahr, who celebrates a common American stream, and Susan Wheeler, whose "The Debtor in the Convex Mirror" bows to John Ashbery but has its own artistry. All of the poets are challenging, and many are inspiring. Following the poetry selections are a statement by the poet and a critical essay on his or her work. A web site (www.Wesleyan.edu/wespress/americanpoets.html) features more readings by the poets. A fine overview of contemporary poetry; highly recommended for academic libraries.—Amy K. Weiss, Univ. of California Lib., Santa Barbara
Dromgoole, Dominic. Will & Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life. Pegasus. Sept. 2007. c.320p. ISBN 978-1-933648-46-0. pap. $14.95. THEATERThis passionate memoir by the artistic director of the Globe Theatre serves to introduce readers to Shakespeare and offers new insights into the plays and characters. Dromgoole ties his personal history to Shakespeare's work, illustrating how his own life and the contemporary world have been enriched, explained, and illuminated by the plays and poems. Through such topics as love, death, family, friendship, and war, readers come to know both Dromgoole and Shakespeare. Dromgoole posits that Shakespeare is "hard wired" into the British psyche in part from World War II: e.g., after losing their theater during the Blitz, the Old Vic company produced "nation-defining performances" with greats like Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. Writing that "no one could ban Shakespeare," Dromgoole illustrates how the plays could work covertly in politically repressive countries to provoke thought for new solutions. This is a marvelous text in which Shakespeare (and Dromgoole) spring to life in unexpected and delightful ways. Recommended for theater, academic, and large public library collections.—Susan L. Peters, Univ. of Texas, Galveston
Erard, Michael. Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean. Pantheon. Aug. 2007. c.304p. index. ISBN 978-0-375-42356-7. $24.95. LANG
In this well-researched, in-depth study of "speech disruption" analysis, Erard, who holds a Ph.D. in English and a master's degree in linguistics, uses his strong sense of the humor inherent in his topic to good effect. He begins with an account of the life of the renowned verbal blunderer Rev. William Archibald Spooner, after whom the spoonerism is named. He then looks at the Freudian slip, which Freud originally conceived as a spotlight on the unconscious self but that has evolved in its popular usage. After examining other notable scholars in the area (e.g., Austrian linguist Rudolf Meringer's investigations of the connection between the evolution of language and blunders and Yale psychiatrist George Mahl's studies of the speech disruption "um"), he devotes an entire chapter to President George W. Bush's verbal stumbles and envisions the future of verbal blunders. This entertaining and detailed text is suited to larger public and academic libraries.—Rebecca Bollen Manalac, Sydney, Australia
Green, Bill & others. I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What-Have-You. Bloomsbury, dist. by Holtzbrinck. Sept. 2007. c.256p. illus. ISBN 978-1-59691-246-5. pap. $15.95. FILMIn 1998, the Coen brothers followed up their Oscar-winning film, Fargo, with The Big Lebowski. Although it initially failed to make a big splash commercially, it has generated a cult following strong enough to support an annual Lebowski Fest. This book by four such devoted fans and founders of the Lebowski Fest—Green, Ben Peskoe, Will Russell, and Scott Shuffitt—includes enough behind-the-scenes trivia and inside information to impress even the most hard-core Little Lebowski Urban Achiever (as dedicated Lebowski savants dub themselves). The authors managed to score interviews with every major actor (and many of the minor ones), and they all have interesting stories to tell. Also interviewed are some of the real-life inspirations behind the outlandish characters of the film, such as Peter Exline, whose rug really tied the room together, and Jeff Dowd, who first called himself "The Dude." Notably absent, however, are the Coen brothers, who "neither bless nor curse" the book. Sure to be of interest to anyone who enjoys the film, this is recommended for all libraries.—John Helling, NYPL
Leland, John. Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think). Viking. Sept. 2007. c.224p. ISBN 978-0-670-06325-3. $22.95. LIT
On the 50th anniversary of the publication of On the Road, New York Times reporter Leland (Hip: The History) provides a fresh, thought-provoking examination of the Jack Kerouac classic. He explores the novel's themes of male friendship, love and death, family values, jazz, and religion and argues that narrator Sal Paradise's road trips with saintly fool Dean Moriarty constitute an inward journey leading to manhood and maturity. Drawing on Kerouac's own letters and journals as well as on the work of earlier biographers, Leland discusses Kerouac's use of autobiography, focusing on the role of the novel's narrator. He notes that where Sal Paradise succeeds, Kerouac too often fails. Leland's book is one of the first to take advantage of the availability of the original scroll typescript of Kerouac's novel for comparison with the 1957 volume. (Viking will be releasing On the Road: The Original Scroll simultaneously with the novel's anniversary edition.) Written in an informal, accessible style, it will appeal to Kerouac fans as well as academics. Highly recommended for all literature collections.—William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Malcolm, Janet. Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice. Yale Univ. Sept. 2007. c.240p. photogs. ISBN 978-0-300-12551-1. $25. LIT
Malcolm (The Journalist and the Murderer) presents a masterful glimpse into the lives of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, whose 40-year relationship is one of the most intriguing of the 20th century. Rather than attempting to include as many details as possible, Malcolm wisely chooses to illuminate the truth of several perplexing questions as thoroughly as any biographer possibly could. The result is a remarkably readable, honest, intelligent, and insightful book in which she reveals some ugly truths about the man who protected Stein and Toklas during World War II and shares her struggles to comprehend Stein's most enigmatic work, The Making of Americans. Several other Stein scholars disclose their frustrations with Leon Katz, the Columbia doctoral student who in the 1950s discovered Stein's notebooks on the novel and interviewed Toklas extensively. Despite the potential of Katz's work to change the course of Stein scholarship, he has yet to publish it. Malcolm's attempt to interview the elderly Katz ends in failure, and the secrets of the notebooks and the results of the Toklas interviews remain largely untold. Preserving something of the mystery is perhaps exactly what Stein would have wanted. Highly recommended for academic and larger libraries.—Anthony Pucci, Notre Dame H.S., Elmira, NY
Mauldin, Joanne Marshall. Thomas Wolfe: When Do the Atrocities Begin? Univ. of Tennessee. 2007. 376p. illus. index. ISBN 978-1-57233-494-6. $38. LIT
When many Americans today hear the name Thomas Wolfe, they think of The Right Stuff. During the 1930s, however, it was the first Thomas Wolfe, author of Look Homeward, Angel (1929), who spoke to the country's yearning, vaguely disconsolate youth on the cusp of the Great Depression. The subject of Wolfe's four huge, rambling novels and miscellaneous shorter prose works was himself and his experiences growing up in the small town of Asheville, NC. Yet as much as modern readers may feel they know the real Thomas Wolfe from these works, the amount and nature of the material Maudlin here unearths will surely startle them and send them back for a second reading of his novels. Mauldin's astonishingly detailed account of Wolfe's last two years on earth (1937–38) involves in part legendary Scribner editor Maxwell Perkins, who helped shape Wolfe's disorganized text into coherence, and Perkins's successor, Harper's Edward C. Aswell, who added and deleted material from Wolfe's manuscripts to his heart's content. Of all the words written about Wolfe, including his own, Mauldin's are among the most fascinating. Highly recommended for academic libraries.—Charles C. Nash, formerly with Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO
Writers Under Siege: Voices of Freedom from Around the World. New York Univ. Sept. 2007. c.330p. ISBN 978-0-8147-6742-9. $65. LIT
The human rights/literary organization PEN has a history of working on the behalf of writers who have suffered government persecution. This book commemorating the organization's 85th anniversary represents the work of 50 writers from more than 20 countries, most of whom have been persecuted, prosecuted, imprisoned, tortured, or killed as a result of their writing. Contributors include those well known in the English-speaking world—e.g., Nobel Prize winners Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) and Harold Pinter (England); Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)—as well as less famous figures. Their poetry, stories, letters, book excerpts, and other short pieces, which vary in style, form, and content, are gathered into four sections: "Prison," "Death," "Exile," and "The Freedom To Write." The selections make clear that many countries not ordinarily thought of as authoritarian are nevertheless not really safe for free expression. A compelling and worthwhile purchase; recommended for all libraries.—Denise J. Johnson, Bradley Univ. Lib., Peoria, IL
Some publishers I like:
Everyman's Library
Library of America
Oxford University Press
Which publishers do you Like?
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