by Marija Matic ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 17, 2018
Moving verse for a mystery man.
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Affection for an individual gives way to love for the world in this debut collection of romantic poetry.
In the introduction to her raw, passionate book of verse, Matic discusses the peculiar way in which love for a person can transform itself into something larger and more selfless: “I have realised that the greatest, most powerful love of all has touched me and it wasn’t just a feeling of love for this one man but a deep passionate love and respect for humankind as a whole.” The structure of this quote mirrors the organization of the book. Early on in the volume, Matic gives readers lots of deeply personal love poems; for example, here are the closing lines of the aptly titled “I Miss You”: “I miss you in the magic / Of the blossom trees / Everywhere I feel you / In everything I miss you / Everywhere I see you / Then I try not to cry.” Here and elsewhere, the poet writes emotional works dedicated to a “stranger,” many of which are pulled back from the brink of triteness by the obvious purity of her devotion to this man. (Matic, who lives in Australia, refers to this stranger pseudonymously as G.H. Eagle Spirit and includes some of his notes to her at the end of the volume.) And yet the collection gains in power and scope when her love shakes free from this narrow idiom and takes flight: “I fell in love / With a stranger I have never seen / Should I search for the answers / Written in the stars / Or just close my eyes and let the river flow / To carry me on the wings of time / Into the realm I have never known.” Unexpected shifts like this one, away from the stranger and toward the water and the stars, give the poems in the second half of the book a jolt of energy and a feeling of wonder.
Moving verse for a mystery man.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-984500-60-1
Page Count: 94
Publisher: XlibrisAU
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Marilynne Robinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2024
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.
A deeply thoughtful exploration of the first book of the Bible.
In this illuminating work of biblical analysis, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Robinson, whose Gilead series contains a variety of Christian themes, takes readers on a dedicated layperson’s journey through the Book of Genesis. The author meanders delightfully through the text, ruminating on one tale after another while searching for themes and mining for universal truths. Robinson approaches Genesis with a reverence and level of faith uncommon to modern mainstream writers, yet she’s also equipped with the appropriate tools for cogent criticism. Throughout this luminous exegesis, which will appeal to all practicing Christians, the author discusses overarching themes in Genesis. First is the benevolence of God. Robinson points out that “to say that God is the good creator of a good creation” sets the God of Genesis in opposition to the gods of other ancient creation stories, who range from indifferent to evil. This goodness carries through the entirety of Genesis, demonstrated through grace. “Grace tempers judgment,” writes the author, noting that despite well-deserved instances of wrath or punishment, God relents time after time. Another overarching theme is the interplay between God’s providence and humanity’s independence. Across the Book of Genesis, otherwise ordinary people make decisions that will affect the future in significant ways, yet events are consistently steered by God’s omnipotence. For instance, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, and that action has reverberated throughout the history of all Jewish people. Robinson indirectly asks readers to consider where the line is between the actions of God and the actions of creation. “He chose to let us be,” she concludes, “to let time yield what it will—within the vast latitude granted by providence.”
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780374299408
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
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.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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