- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (Sep 30 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0151006601
- ISBN-13: 978-0151006601
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14.4 x 2.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 413 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #447,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Szymborska's Nobel Prize for literature in 1996 recognized her achievement in poetry. This collection of short prose responses ("I couldn't write reviews and didn't even want to") to 94 books proves a luminous and inspiring set of readerly reports-sharp, digressive, joyous-that provide insight into the poet's process of intake and synthesis. The pieces don't so much describe the books in question as take off from them, riffing and meditating on their contents. "The world is full of all sorts of sleeping powers-but how can you know in advance which may be safely released and which should be kept under lock at all costs?" she asks after reading Karel Capek's 1936 novel The War with the Newts, a sort of 1984 meets The Lord of the Flies. "One hundred minutes for your own beauty? Every day? You can't always indulge in such luxuries, my dear vain, dizzy, professionally employed, married friend with children," is her wry response to One Hundred Minutes for Beauty by Zofia Wedrowska, fourth edition, Warsaw: Sport I Turystyka, 1978. "We all know that a gesture repeated too often grows trite and loses its deeper meaning," she writes of Kathleen Keating's A Little Book of Hugs, but notes that "Miss Keating is an American, and enthusiasm comes to her more easily." Readers will find it comes just as easily to them via this varied collection by a keen reader and thinker.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Unknown to most Americans until she won the 1996 Nobel Prize in literature, Polish writer Szymborska is primarily a poet. This collection of short prose pieces features book reviews she wrote while working as a columnist. Addressing a wide range of subjects, from the ancient Romans to the modern-day handyman, the reviews reflect her eclectic tastes and poetic sensibility. Unafraid to take an unpopular position, she, as a smoker, complains about the American penchant for demonizing anyone who cannot break the habit. In another piece, she reviews a book on early medical practices, pointing out that Louis XIV must have had an unusually resilient constitution to withstand the 2000 enemas and numerous bloodlettings to which he was subjected. On a weightier note, she tackles the question of why some civilizations succeed while others do not, given that humanity started out more or less the same. The skillful simplicity and lyric quality of these essays make them distinctive. With her poet's gift for compression, Szymborska captures large concepts and brilliantly reduces them to pithy, two-page essays. Strongly recommended for public and academic libraries.
--Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Box of Chocolates,
By
This review is from: Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces (Hardcover)
This is a book of prose essays by the 1996 Nobel Prize winning author Wislawa Szymborska. They were from her newspaper column of 30+ years ago, "Nonrequired Reading". They are the musings on everyday books and subjects.It is a wide ranging and eclectic collection. There will be one essay on a touching Korean fable. Then, the next will be on how to make a reptile aquarium. Many of these essays were book reviews. However,they are more her thoughts on the subjects than reviews. When I say this book is like a "box of chocolates" it is in the Gumpian sense of the word. You never know what you're going to get and it will be interesting no matter what the topic. The aforementioned reptile aquarium piece was not only interesting but, philosophical as well. That the book was from a translation was not a problem. Ms. Cavanaugh, the tranlator, was the winner of the PEN Translator prize. Reading this, it seems to have travelled without a problem. For those buying this book: please read it! Do not put it on your coffee table to show off your erudition of having a Nobel Prize winning author's book so prominently on display. There is too much enjoyment to be had by reading this book. The essays are from one page to a page and a half in length. Hopefully, there will be more essays to come in the future.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Box of Chocolates,
By Alice L. Moore - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces (Hardcover)
This is a book of prose essays by the 1996 Nobel Prize winning author Wislawa Szymborska. They were from her newspaper column of 30+ years ago, "Nonrequired Reading". They are the musings on everyday books and subjects.It is a wide ranging and eclectic collection. There will be one essay on a touching Korean fable. Then, the next will be on how to make a reptile aquarium. Many of these essays were book reviews. However,they are more her thoughts on the subjects than reviews. When I say this book is like a "box of chocolates" it is in the Gumpian sense of the word. You never know what you're going to get and it will be interesting no matter what the topic. The aforementioned reptile aquarium piece was not only interesting but, philosophical as well. That the book was from a translation was not a problem. Ms. Cavanaugh, the tranlator, was the winner of the PEN Translator prize. Reading this, it seems to have travelled without a problem. For those buying this book: please read it! Do not put it on your coffee table to show off your erudition of having a Nobel Prize winning author's book so prominently on display. There is too much enjoyment to be had by reading this book. The essays are from one page to a page and a half in length. Hopefully, there will be more essays to come in the future. 7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
required reading,
By happy warrior - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces (Hardcover)
I love the sweep. Szymborska can make any topic fascinating. She finds deep and homey lessons in a broad range of topics. And of course, she's a real writer.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Enough for this fan!,
By Sylviastel - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces (Hardcover)
I love Wislawa Szymborska. Although I am not a fan of poetry in general, I began reading this book of her thoughts and feelings and criticisms which are never vicious, cruel, or even negative. She finds something positive about everytyhing from Ella Fitzgerald to Alfred Hitchcock and many other subjects about books. I think there is a fascination with this woman because she is a NObel Prize winner for literature in 1996 and from Poland. She is the first Polish woman to receive such an honor. She is quite humble about such honors. We know little about her life. We know she has a sister. She might be a widow and she has no children. She is a smoker and lives in a three room flat in Cracow where she has lived since her family moved there. Wislawa has now popularity because of her top honors for her services to literature. I would love to read a biography or autobiography about her. I loved her story about her relationship with another Polish Nobel prizewinner and fellow poet, Czeslaw Milosz. As long as there are writers like Wislawa around, we can be sure that she is not done yet.
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