Rose Solari Reviews Three New Collections Exploring History and Identity
The WIROB critic tackles collections by Steven Leyva, Miles David Moore, and Stanley Moss in the January roundup
Rose Solari reviews three exemplar new poetry collections for Washington Independent Review of Books. In her ongoing poetry column, Solari takes great care to tie each of the collections she reviews together and the theme this month is history and identity.
From the beautifully drawn New Orleans of Steven Leyva's The Understudy's Handbook, to the WWII of Miles David Moore's Man on Terrace with Wine, and the deep knowledge and reverence for the history of poetry in Act V, Scene 1 by Stanley Moss, these three collections look at the foundations of history, art, love, and identity: "The Ground Beneath their Feet."
Rose Solari keeps a regular column where she reviews poetry for Washington Independent Review of Book. Her last review tackled the Selected Lucille Clifton and Henry Taylor.
Tim Cahill calls ‘Navigating the Divide’ the “Most Rewarding Book I’ve Read This Year”
Learn what famed travel writer, Tim Cahill, has to say about Linda Watanabe McFerrin’s new ASP Legacy Book, “Navigating the Divide.”
Joanna Biggar Reveals the Heart’s Center of her Newest Novel
After 2015’s That Paris Year which followed a group of young women on their year-abroad at the Sorbonne—their youthful flings as well as their many rites of adulthood— Joanna Biggar is bringing its spiritual sequel Melanie’s Song overseas to her own hometown in the United States. Set in Califonia amid the cultural revolution of the late 60s early 70s, Melanie’s Song, while not a direct sequel to That Paris Year shares many of its characters and its familiar, lavish lyrical style. In MS, J.J., the protagonist of That Paris Year, a young reporter, is on a quest to find her missing friend, Melanie (the archetypal shy scholarly type and another character from TPY) who fled her marriage to a straight-laced classical musician in order to hitch-hike to Woodstock and San Francisco.
What Does Patricia Bracewell Have to Say about “Melanie’s Song”?
What does bestselling historical fiction author, Patricia Bracewell, think of Joanna Biggar’s latest novel, “Melanie’s Song”?