With Chaucerian wit, these poems and essays combine with whimsical art to tackle a Miltonic quandary. À la V. Ulea (aka Vera Zubarev), God creates the angels because of loneliness. But the trouble is that these angels see everything in black and white, Satan and Gabriel. So . . . God tries again, with Adam—who offers improvement, for the poor fellow does have some amusing faults. But what is with all this classifying? Neither Aristotle nor computers are around yet. So, why—daily—does Adam feel compelled to name everything? Pondering this, God gives a glance to Adam’s rib as he sleeps and . . . well, at least half the readers will know exactly what God does and why. And those who don’t, will, after seeing how Ulea and Frankel have combined Eve’s foremost talents, Chaos and Creativity, to offer us a most pleasant excursus.
V. Ulea (Vera Zubarev) is a bilingual Russian-English poet, writer, scholar and film director. She has published 14 books of poetry, prose, and literary criticism. Her works have appeared in various periodicals both American and European, including The Literary Review, Princeton Arts Review, RE:AL, and others.
She teaches classes on Decision Making in Chess, Literature and Film at the University of Pennsylvania.
