From Publishers Weekly
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Simic's 18 collected pieces, published between 1990 and 1993, might well be called a parade of memory. In these journals, notebooks, introductions, memoirs, and occasional pieces, Simic recalls the sights, sounds and smells of his native Yugoslavia. Born in Belgrade in 1938, the poet and his family moved to the United States in 1954. From then on, he tells us, poetry has dominated and determined his life. Though he has been living in New Hampshire some 20 years, Simic still relishes the role of exile as he rails at the literary critics and schoolmasters who do not share his view of the power of lyric poetry. Simic is nostalgic and acutely observant of his Serbian roots, as well as his early days in this country. He mixes the erotic with the poetic, the sensual pleasures of food and poetry and a love of language with a love of eating. The best pieces in this collection, however, are those full of wit and pithy pronouncements that come to the defense of poetry. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
This collection gathers the writings of poet Simic (A Wedding in Hell, LJ 11/1/94) on a wide variety of topics, ranging from food's relationship to happiness to tragic events in Yugoslavia. Of the 18 articles included, most have appeared previously in Antaeus and other literary reviews. Several introductions and occasional pieces, along with a selection of notebook entries, flesh out the volume. Two biographical sketches, "Luneville Diary," which deals with Simic's U.S. Army experiences in France, and "Lady Be Good," an account of simic's affair, as a young man, with an older woman, are especially moving. The latter, an excerpt from a memoir in progress, promises a rich reading experience to come. For literary collections.William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
In this short collection of essays (some previously published in Antaeus and other literary reviews), Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Simic (Hotel Insomnia, 1992, etc.) brings off a masterfully casual beauty, whether discussing the creation of poetry and the poet's social role, praising food and the blues, or relating the travails of youth. Suspicious of all absolutist thought, the Yugoslavia-born Simic (English/Univ. of New Hampshire) is a committed individualist and, like some Eastern bloc poets who have endured socialist realism, a humorous surrealist. In deceptively discursive and casual prose, he touches on simple subjects to delve into deeper matters--for example, an autobiographical sketch chronicles his search for the meaning of human happiness in terms of favorite dishes, including Yugoslavian burek and American potato chips. Whether the subject matter is as academic as Surrealist composition, or as contemporary as the genetic engineering of his favorite fruit, the tomato, Simic gregariously mixes personal conversations with literary quotations (or, just as appositely, folk sayings and songs), and his prose can suddenly flare up into startling images: ``Words make love on the page like flies in the summer heat.'' These essays' variety of approaches and subjects shows the eclectic mix of true multiculturalism, for Simic is an intellectual in the postwar model of immigrant cum exile, versed in European traditions yet enthusiastic about American culture as well. This comes into sharpest relief in his essay on murderous nationalism in Yugoslavia and his album of snapshot reminiscences of Belgrade, Chicago, and New York City. Sometimes, though, Simic's light touch fails to leave a lasting impression on the serious philosophical subjects he addresses, his selection of notebook aphorisms are hit-or-miss, and a couple of brief essays are simply culled from introductions. In one odd notebook jotting Simic projects creating a ``nongenre made up of fiction, autobiography, the essay, poetry, and of course, the joke!''--an apt description of this collection's hodge-podge charm. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
Provides glimpses into the origins of Charles Simic's poetry

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The book reflects the poet's concern with the complex interplay of poetry, art, philosophy, and one's own biography. It is a pleasure to read, with prose that is at once serious and playful. As in his poetry, Simic displays his fondness for odd juxtapositions that reveal hidden and unexpected conditions.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal