Customer Reviews

Weather Forecast for Utopia & Vicinity: Poems 1967-1982

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Charles Simic, Weather Forecast for Utopia and Vicinity (1983, Station Hill)

Charles Simic is a brilliant writer. Okay, enough said about that. Weather Forecast for Utopia and Vicinity is singular in his canon, and an essential book for Simic fans, because it is Simic in concentrated form; the pieces here are shorter than usual, more imagist, more surreal. In other words, Simic in "pure" form:

"The great Nietzsche supposedly
Once shaved a horse in Turin.

The same mad Nietzsche
Used to peek into his pocket-mirror,
From time to time,
To make sure he was still there.

It must have been the same mirror
He let the horse admire himself in
After the shave."
--"Grandmother Logic"

Full of the trademark wit and unexpected pleasures of all of Simic's works. Packs an extra punch thanks to brevity. Absolutely lovely. **** ½