Review
Elaine Feinstein has made the juncture between poetry and memoir her own. As befits a poet who is also a master of fiction and biography, she writes with casual erudition and an acute storyteller's eye. Her forays into European culture and history are dazzling. Cities is a profoundly humane, intimate exploration of the places and stages by which a life acquires meaning. Fiona Sampson Cities presents itself as the work of old age, but readers expecting regret or renunciation will be surprised by the affirmative character of this book. While Elaine Feinstein revisits Europe in the aftermath of Nazism, she also praises the good fortune of having lived richly in the sphere of literature and travelled widely among remarkable people. The poems here are lit with striking clarity - things retain their outline and solidity to an unusual degree. Sean O' Brien The strangeness of visited cities, with their fearful histories, has been transmuted here by the responses of a truly gifted poet. Dannie Abse
Product Description
With 60 new poems spanning the world—from Basel to Budapest, Tampico to Tiblisi, New York to Sydney—this collection explores the landscape and history of each destination with vivid expressions charged by memories both fond and once forgotten. From her insightful autobiography, the author encounters friends, colleagues, and strangers in each city who stir up details of a life lived completely. At turns poignant and amusing, this volume will delight literary minds and poets alike.
About the Author
Elaine Feinstein is a biographer, a novelist, a poet, and a translator. She is the author of several books, including The Russian Jerusalem, Talking to the Dead, and Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet.
