These in-depth, thought-provoking, and often funny posts are the brainchild of The Book Barn's very own Glenn. He never fails to make a great recommendation, useful warning or entertaining suggestion!
A Note Before the First. An index of Subjects. The subjects: 1: Kenneth Rexroth’s Classics Revisited. 2: The Tale of Genji. 3: The poetry of Daniel Huws. 4: The novels of Jonis Agee. 5: Five (or twelve) great mysteries. 6: The literature of the Blasket Islands. 7: Zen: Shunryū Suzuki, Robert Aitken, R.H. Blyth, and Brian Victoria’s Zen At War. 8: The letters of Van Gogh, Keats, Helene Hanff, and the Shaw-Terry correspondence. 9: The journals of Pepys, Thoreau and Dorothy Wor
#294. DEAF REPUBLIC, BY ILYA KAMINSKY. I read Ilya Kaminsky’s book-length parable-poem Deaf Republic in a single sitting; by the end of it, I was trembling and my hands were shaking. The setting is an occupied European town, in the opening scene the citizens have gathered to see and listen to a puppet show. A soldier attempts to disperse the crowd; he accosts a deaf child, Petya, who spits on him and is shot for his insolence. In that moment—a stanzaic break—a strange tr
