Customer Reviews

Poem Strip (New York Review Books Classics)

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Originally written in 1969, this is a bizarre but attractive graphic novel-style modern retelling of the Orpheus and Euridice myth. In Milan, during the late 1960s, a brooding rock star descends to the underworld to bring back his beloved girlfriend to the world of the living. The bizarre drawings (by the author himself, and clearly influenced by the pop art of the era) seeps horror and sex in every page. Italian writer Dino Buzzati (1906-1972) is to me one of the most underrated authors of the 20th century. He is not very well known, but every book I have read from him is extremely commendable, from the classic philosophical novel The Tatar Steppe to the mythical The Secret of the Old Forest to the children book The Bears Famous Invasion of Sicily and to the terrific tale of crazy love Un Amore.

Throughout my reading, this book never ceased to surprise me. Every few pages I felt drawn into yet another bizarre atmosphere and situation. The translation is faithful to the lyricism of the original, I feel, and Buzzati's retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the most provocative modern ones I've come across.

"Death, oh death
Gift of a wise god
All the charms of this world
Come from you
Even love."

A poem, a song, a story, a tale, of love and death and despair and hope, and worldly nymphs and otherworldly things. Beautifully illustrated.