Current Book Reviews
FullReviews Index - page 3
Before, During & After: Poems
Hal Sirowitz is the author of six books of poetry, although probably best known for the volumes Mother Said (Crown), & My Therapist Said (Crown). He has had work in numerous anothologies and periodicals, such as Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe (Henry Holt),
Verses That Hurt (St. Martin's Press), Chelsea and
Hanging Loose. He's a 1994 recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, & reads regularly in New York, as well as internationally.
Diary
For the first time since his first novel, Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk is writing in a woman's voice, albeit the obsessed and borderline deranged voice of Diary's "heroine." However, the urgency and broken speech are so reminiscent of his earlier work that it could very well be the fantasy of Fight Club's truly psychotic narrator.
To Live
"To Live" is an epic and heartbreaking journey spanning four decades of recent Chinese history. It begins in the 1930s around the time of China’s second war with Japan and continues into the late 1970s reform era. In between, Hua weaves great sorrow and struggle for Fugui and his family through the tempestuous Chinese Civil War, The Great Leap Forward, and The Cultural Revolution.
Review: "Tilting" by Robert Mellin
Eight miles off the Eastern coast of Newfoundland, Canada lies Fogo Island, an inconsequential spot of land 15 miles in length and 9 miles wide. "Fogo" is derived from "fuego," the Portugese word for fire, since in its rocky barrenness, the island appears to have "been swept clean by fire."