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IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Name: IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
Author: Larry Pollock
ISBN: 978-1452580524

by Larry Pollock ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2013

Shot through with personal and often underdeveloped pieces, this collection nevertheless has tender spirit to share.

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A somewhat random collection of free verse and short prose reflections with a Midwestern flair.

“I am often visited in the middle of the night by a muse,” Pollock says. “When awakened by the muse, I rush down to my office. By the time I get there, I have a fully developed ‘piece.’…Most of the ‘pieces’ in this book materialized this way. I might wish to take credit, but mostly I’m just grateful.” This well-worn literary trope was most famously employed by Coleridge in “Kubla Khan,” though where Coleridge’s apocryphal origination story is, in fact, an extension of the creative act, Pollock’s seems to be genuine. While his work can be tender, thought-provoking, nostalgic and at times even startling, it is rarely finely crafted or polished. Amid the reflections on Midwestern childhoods, failed marriages, world travels and longitudinal studies of parent-child relationships, his very fallible narrators are mostly earnest and unruffled. They seek enlightenment through simplicity and the abnegation of attachment and expectation—“I care not what awaits. // I am open to be / catapulted by the crashing waves”—and are intoxicated by their own histories: “I still recall the joy I felt….Writing about this almost 60 years later / brings tears to my eyes.” These vacillating impulses manifest formally in the collection’s cycles of short, epigrammatic pieces—“I thought I had a problem. / I didn’t.”—and rambling, nostalgic poems such as “Rude Awakening,” “Mrs. Stokesbury and The Orange,” “Dad” (both versions) and “Mom.” The short prose piece “My Moment with a Tibetan Buddhist Monk,” exposes a narrator whose moment of egolessness ends up boosting his ego, and in “Acceptance,” another narrator’s appetites assert themselves in the midst of spiritual practice. Whatever transgressions and relapses the characters suffer, Pollock tells their stories with a wink and a smile. There are indeed some dark moments in this book—it opens with the death of an infant, after all—but the prevailing tone is one of humorous compassion and optimism.

Shot through with personal and often underdeveloped pieces, this collection nevertheless has tender spirit to share.

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013

ISBN: 978-1452580524

Page Count: 136

Publisher: BalboaPress

Review Posted Online: June 4, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

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ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

by Timothy Paul Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2005

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

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A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.

This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is â€œHow We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005

ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

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THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955

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This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.