Lomas’s translations are smooth, and as close to idiomatic English as one should ask. The poetry itself is well worth the...
Though Holappa’s first collection of poems was published in Finland in 1950 and he has produced a large body of work since then, in poetry and in prose, this volume represents the first of Holappa’s writings to be translated into English. Clearly, few readers will miss the Finnish originals and fewer still will be able to comment on the accuracy of Lomas’s translation, but the Holappa that emerges here is urbane, measured, and able to address an admirable mixture of themes and dilemmas. The foreign reader immediately recognizes the unfamiliar ground merely by listening to a list of Holappa’s fears in “The Last Time But One”: “There’s no hope / If arctic erosion will crush into sludge the land / I belong to.” Ecological disaster is a consistent worry, but Holappa is perhaps primarily a love poet. His poems do not aim for subtlety, and yet they can charm in their brusque simplicity: “I listen to Jung on the radio, / pricking my ears at death and folk tales. / My dog barks at imaginary noises. / The point is: I want your love.” In this poem and others, love often figures as a quasi-apocalyptic force whose bare naming always risks overstatement. The lover is usually far away, sometimes impossibly far, as distant as the poet from his readers. Holappa’s poems do lack a certain tonal range; they often sacrifice nuance in the name of probity. This is no doubt an unfashionable strategy for American poets at the moment, but its rarity here makes of Holappa’s limitations a modest opportunity to read differently and see our own habits in a clearer light.
Lomas’s translations are smooth, and as close to idiomatic English as one should ask. The poetry itself is well worth the effort it demands.Pub Date: June 5, 2000
ISBN: 1-901233-47-2
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Dedalus
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2000
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
