Review of "Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead"

Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My oldest daughter read the book, liked it so much she shipped it to her sister from LA to DC. Then my youngest daughter mailed it to me in the heartland. Now I've recommended it to a friend in Florida, who has promised to read it soon. (Olga Tokarczuk, if you read these things, I hope you enjoy knowing this.)

There's an element of Steinbeck's comic novels in "Drive Your Plow." A highly idiosyncratic narrator whose peculiarities are very funny. A strong dose of fatalism. A quirky twist in plot resolution, which you suspect all along but remain uncertain of until you arrive at the appropriate place in the novel.

I just today read Curtis Sittenfeld's intro to the 2020 edition of Best American Short Stories, in which he states that a good story always seems to read as if it were emitted in one long breath, a sort of Allen Ginsberg notion of poetry, and Tokarczuk's narrative has that quality in this novel. Fifty years ago, readers would say it "flows."

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A Little Treasury Of American Poetry; The Chief Poets From Colonial Times To The Present Day by Oscar Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The "little" treasury ain't so little at 844 pages, and it gives a good snapshot of American poetry over the 300 years leading up to the middle of the 20th century. Not surprisingly, it's a bit short on women poets and minorities. Oscar Williams' intro also provides a readable critical and interesting take on the critical approach (academic) to poetry in 1952.

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Review of The Collected Stories of Reynolds Price

Collected Stories of Reynolds Price by Reynolds Price
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The stories shorter than 20 pages are excellent; the ones over 20 pages, for the most part, seem a bit long winded.

Price's skill with sentences and description is remarkable.

I always enjoyed listening to him when he was a guest on NPR.

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