Two distinct, extended poems present an ensemble of memorable characters in moving, humorous, and mesmerizing motifs. The themes of duality, gender, dichotomy, and genre are explored, blending them with exciting and lyrical language. Beautifully illustrating a diverse array of topics, this examination makes an excellent addition to any collection of poetry.
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From Publishers Weekly
This pair of new long works from the California-based experimental poetry master (The Fatalist) makes a fine introduction to her current powers. Hejinian--admired in avant-garde circles since the 1970s--combines epistemological investigations with deft jokes. "Circus" is both prose poem and experimental, nonlinear fiction: named characters (Sally Dover, Quindlan, the talkative Askari Nate Martin) chase one another through short nonlinear chapters (one sequence includes, in order, "Chapter Two," "Chapter One," "Chapter 3 and Chapter Two," "Chapter Between" and another "Chapter Two"). Sometimes kids, sometimes gossipy wives, sometimes circus performers and sometimes figures in a whodunit; these are characters meant to dismantle expectations, in quotable sentences and baffling passages reminiscent of Gertrude Stein: "Quindlan refuses to recognize anything as a digression, to take a suggestion, to accept a designation." Less whimsical and perhaps more profound, "Saga" comprises 37 numbered free-verse segments: each imagines a long journey on a seagoing vessel as a figure for poetry, history, life. Along with Hejinian's usual canny smarts, this newest long poem includes unexpected Romantic aspirations, with nods to Wordsworth and Coleridge: Hejinian, or her persona, says she "felt uprooted even/ At an early age perhaps from gods, my deities/ Were streaming/ Or grinding like a boat being hauled over stony ground." (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"A complex dance of metaphor, distraction, and unexpected union. Hejinian proves once again why she is one of the most radical and important writers we are fortunate to have." —The Bloomsbury Review
"Here is the marvel of putting learning into play, ventriloquizing it as a puppeteer might. The 'characters' emerge out of the text, first as names, then as activities, then like events with personal qualities—which then become part of the social affect, the climate of the text, the whole buoyant and mournful circus. It is all so very active. Along comes Lola!" —Carla Harryman
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