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poet Merrill's 1965 novel w/new afterword ... Read more

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4 ½* Poetic Narrative
Another gem from the Dalkey publishing house, this exploration of creativity reads beautifully.For the most part, it succeeds both as literary experiment and as narrative.Author James Merrill is a poet, and his imagery and poetic structure are the major attraction of this "book within a book."

Merrill's protagonist, Sandy, struggles with a novel he's writing about his family and their experiences on the Greek island of "Diblos."Merrill's conceit is that his (Merrill's) book is really the notebook of author "Sandy."There are two types of entries in this notebook: Sandy's draft of a novel, complete with edits, restarts, notes to himself, etc., and Sandy's journal about his "real life" and people and experiences from which he derives much of his novel.

I won't be giving away too much by providing a brief key to the names of characters in Sandy's novel and their counterparts Sandy's life. "Orestes" is the draft novel 's name for Orson, Sandy's half-brother. "Dora" (the older woman unnamed at the start of Sandy's novel), Orestes' friend and lover, is based on Dora, friend and lover of Orson on Diblos who later accompanies him to New York City. "Sandy" remains unnamed in the novel, but is Orestes' half-brother."Arthur Orson" is Orson's godfather; his place in the novel is not yet resolved.

"The (Diblos) Notebook" is not as confusing as it may sound, and the writing is evocative and beautifully impressionistic:"The islands of GreeceAcross vivid water the islands of Greece lie. They have been cut out of cardboard and set on bases of at subtle odds with one another, upon bases of pale haze. Their colors are mauve, exhausted blue, tanned rose, here and there crinkled to catch the light. They do not seem It is inconceivable that they are of one substance with the warm red rock underfoot"

These fits and starts are especially prevalent in the beginning of Merrill's book, and (as he notes in his 1994 afterword) are his attempt to show that, contrary to the notions of some Beat writers, the first creative impulse is not always the best. Sometimes revision improves writing.What I found just as interesting, though, were the sentences in which the original sounded truer, as if the revisions were trying to hide certain emotions.The editing device, with the fragments that resemble poetry and the hints at repression get somewhat tiring after awhile, and Merrill focuses more on straightforward narrative in the well-paced second half.His presentations of brilliant, vain Orson, insightful but isolated Sandy, and the contrasts between Greece and New York read easily and are as insightful as the more overtly psychological revisions. It's an interesting book, rich with such pleasures.At times the book is challenging, and Merrill perhaps overplays his"experiment," but it's also one of those books that reveals more pleasures with each rereading (whether of the whole book or just sections). This book was well received by the critics; it was a final nominee for the National Book Award in Fiction in 1965. Definitely recommended. ... Read more

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Imagine walking through a garden full of never-before-seen flowers. Then open this book and you will find twelve of them waiting to charm you, beckon to you, and whisper their messages like perfume in the air. Dorothea Tanning has painted these twelve imaginary blooms on twelve canvases--one for each month, or for each hour of the day or night. To speak for them, twelve contemporary poets have chosen a flower and given it its voice, creating, in these pages, a dazzling collaboration that has resulted in a new "language of flowers."

With Poems by:James Merrill, Harry Mathews, Rosanna Warren, Debora Greger, Adrienne Rich, Anthony Hecht, Richard Howard,J. D. McClatchy, W S.Merwin, John Ashbery, Stephen Yenser, and Brenda Shaughnessy. ... Read more

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The Marriage of Painting and Poetry
ANOTHER LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS is a monograph of paintings, both finished and in preparatory sketches, each oil on canvas and rather large in size, that are gathered and presented with the titles assigned to each painting by poet friends of the painter.Dorothea Tannning has created twelve elegant and dreamy blossoms and pairs each painting with a poetic response by some of our most gifted poets today - James Merrill, Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery among them.The result is a beautiful little book that speaks quietly to our sense of beauty.Here is a treasure book to not only add to your bedside stand to close the day with sweetness, but here is also that 'book for someone special' that is ever on the list for readers and art lovers alike.Highly recommended. ... Read more

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It is in this climate of government spending and fraud that the Center for Health Transformation offers an in-depth book on healthcare fraud. Given that healthcare costs make up around one-seventh of America s economy, it is imperative at this time to ensure that funding goes to appropriate people and organizations, not crooks seeking to rob taxpayers. We hope to begin a serious national discussion about fraud, the perverse incentives that allow such fraud to flourish, and key strategies to bring these schemes to an end. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A technically brilliant, superb poet and a great collection
Merrill is known for his technical brilliance, even rescuing lost verse forms from obscurity. He has been accused of arch intellectualism, and many readers detect a certain lack of emotion between the lines, but while thesecriticisms are likely true, lovers of formalist poetry should take the timeto read him, for he is marvellous, witty, and urbane. Fans of Stevens,Moore, Ashbery and Bishop will most likely warm to Merrill.

"Charleson Fire" is a good place to start, but "Lost inTranslation", which appears in the collection "DivineComedies" is my favorite.I have read this poem dozens of times, andwill likely never tire of it.

And if you're ready for more, by allmeans, take on "The Changing Light at Sandover", his magnum opus,an eccentric, occult masterpiece. ... Read more

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The I-Series Applications textbooks strongly emphasize that students learn and master applications skills by being actively engaged- by doing.These texts have been written with clear, error-free, and unambiguous steps to accomplish tasks that lead to a finished document, worksheet or database table.The authors made the decision that teaching ¿how¿ to accomplish some task is not enough for complete understanding and mastery.Prior to introducing steps, the authors discuss why the steps students are about to experience are important and what role the steps play in the overall plan for creating a document, workbook or database. ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more