June 2007
John Cotter guides us through Clayton Eshleman’s translations of the startling, invigorating poetry of César Vallejo, one of the earliest and most underrepresented of the modernists
IX from Trilce
A transcontemporization of César Vallejo by Sampson Starkweather
Fumbling Men
Don DeLillo’s new novel Falling Man confronts our naked desire to understand 9/11. Jeff O’Keefe tells us how it fares.
Absent Friends:
H.H. Kirst and the Problem of Evil
What do we do with great novels by a writer who was also a Nazi? In our monthly feature, Steve Donoghue investigates the terrible conundrum of H.H. Kirst.
The Evasionist
Sam Sacks reviews the fun and flawed new novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and tries to answer the question on everybody’s lips: what exactly is Michael Chabon doing?
Salad Days
Teaching a man to fish isn’t enough: you’ve also got to teach him to cook what he catches. Hugh Merwin challenges the usefulness of Barbara Kingsolver’s folksy Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
Weems Redux
Alan Axelrod’s Blooding at Great Meadows perpetuates a few too many myths about George Washington. Fortunately, we have Steve Donoghue to set the hagiographers straight.
Three From Coach House Books
Adam Golaski champions the “difficult read” in his review of the poetry of a. rawlings, Christian Bök, and Nathalie Stephens
God-bothering
After tallying up the fallacies in God is Not Great, Amanda Bragg concludes that Christopher Hitchens is less concerned with enlightened dissent than with cashing in on a craze
Peer Review:
Running Toward the Truck
Newspaper book pages are under threat. In our monthly feature, John Cotter assesses the reviews of Jonathan Lethem’s novel You Don’t Love Me Yet to learn what (if anything) in our print reviews is worth saving.
Mount Wharton
Steve Donoghue converses with the critics in his review of Hermione Lee’s page-turning but harrowingly huge biography of Edith Wharton
Limitless Apocalypse
Karen Vanuska reviews Jim Crace’s post-apocalyptic novel The Pesthouse, in which Americans seek salvation by emigrating to Europe. Hmm, think Crace might be trying to tell us something…?
Quiz:
Summertime!
In which our brain-cracking questions focus on literature that takes place in this sweatiest of seasons
The Cover Photo for June, “Tree,” was taken by Liam Frankland. Much more of Liam’s work can be seen at www.liamfrankland.com and www.flickr.com/photos/lyrical.
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