The Book of Things: 'poems of the world' --Kenyon Review
A recent review from the Kenyon Review (Online) is calling Aleš Šteger’s The Book of Things a “smart, startling, and wildly pleasurable book.” Already a winner of Three Percent’s 2011 Best Translated Book Award as well as the AATSEL 2011 Best Literary Translation into English Award, reviewer Dan Rosenberg concurs that the collection should receive such merits.
According to Rosenberg, part of the appeal in The Book of Things is the way Šteger “grants the non-human stuff of the world the same agency and importance of humanity; it insists on the souls of things.” Rosenberg also gives credit to Brian Henry’s translation for “adding fruitful new associations” to Šteger’s poetry—including the character “A” in the poems—rather than diverting the audience “down the wrong path.”
Perhaps the best compliment Rosenberg gives Šteger’s notable collection is its ability “to inhabit English comfortably.” Because of the universality of Šteger’s poems, they are what Rosenberg calls “fundamentally public, plural—poems of the world.”
See the full review, here.
Purchase The Book of Things, here.
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