A capacious, satisfying volume of poetry.
A debut collection of poetry delivers prayers, praise, and much more.
From its title, readers might assume that Champion’s verse collection is purely devotional—a compendium of poems about religious life. And the author certainly plays well in that key, crafting many poignant testimonies to the power of belief. Her spiritual poems often take Bible verses as their starting points and reflect on the wisdom of Scripture. So “Trapped” builds on the work of the psalmist, who writes in the 40th chapter of that book: “He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire.” Champion expands on this hopeful promise: “Have you ever been trapped, just feeling so weary? / Depression will make you burst / Have you ever known someone whom you loved dearly? / Who no longer has your trust….There is a way out, but you have to shout / Lord, I can’t do this alone!” In this and other pieces, the author updates the biblical message, rendering it in an approachable vernacular—sometimes in rhyme and sometimes not—that welcomes readers in. But the great joy of this rewarding volume is that it engages a host of other themes too. Champion seems to realize that faith is one part of a life fully lived, and her collection tries to capture a wide cross section of such an existence. So there are poems here about Earth, the delight of children, and lost loved ones. One topic in particular that she returns to again and again is Africa, where the poet spent much of her life. She has fond memories of her former home, and she waxes lyrical when writing about it: “I returned to South Africa / Land of dreams, and streams, and stunning sunsets / Horizons which stretch to infinity / Where oceans meet, and collide / In which dolphins play and then hide.” Such poems show Champion’s dexterity and prove that she can write well in a variety of modes.
A capacious, satisfying volume of poetry.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5434-8815-9
Page Count: 200
Publisher: XlibrisUK
Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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