Tangents

reviewed by Tom Hartman

Issue No. 45 ~ February, 2001

Still Life With Oysters and Lemon

reviewed by Rachel Barenblat

Issue No. 45 ~ February, 2001

A sharp cracking cold day, the air of the Upper East Side full of rising plumes of smoke from furnaces and steaming laundries, exhaust from the tailpipes of idling taxis, flapping banners, gangs of pigeons. Here on the museum steps a flock suddenly chooses to …

The Years with Laura Díaz

reviewed by Emily Banner

Issue No. 45 ~ February, 2001

Not long after the publication of her novel The Years, Virginia Woolf attempted to explain the book to a friend. “[W]hat I meant,” she wrote, “was to give a picture of society as a whole; give characters from every side; turn them towards society, not …

The Determined Days

reviewed by Rachel Barenblat

Issue No. 45 ~ February, 2001

Any book praised by Anthony Hecht and John Hollander is likely to be two things: fine tuned and formal. Philip Stephens’ The Determined Days is both. By “formal,” I mean that Stephens’ verse takes shape in specific and rule-bound ways, not that it is fussy …

Last Rights

by Julia Slavin

Issue No. 45 ~ February, 2001

Hammy came home. Late that afternoon, I watched our handsome brother step out of the Mt. Shasta blue Merkur he rented at the airport. I ran down the steps of the porch. “You look beautiful.” I threw my arms around his neck. Hammy and I …