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Interviews | November 3, 2009

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2 Local Warehouse Poetry- A to Z

More copies of this ISBN:

Handwriting

by Michael Ondaatje

Handwriting Cover
Out of Print

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Handwriting is a collection of exquisitely crafted poems of delicacy and power – poems about love, landscape, and the sweep of history set in the poet’s first home, Sri Lanka.

The falling away of culture is juxtaposed with an individual’s sense of loss, grief, and remembrance, as Ondaatje weaves a rich tapestry of images – the unburial of stone Buddhas, a family of stilt-walkers crossing a field, the pattern of teeth marks on skin drawn by a monk from memory.

And, like the poets who “wrote their stories on rock and leaf/to celebrate the work of the day,/the shadow pleasures of the night,” in these poems Ondaatje writes of desire and longing, the curve of a bridge against a woman’s foot, the figure of a man walking through a rainstorm to a tryst.

Handwriting is a poetic achievement by a writer at the height of his creative powers. In it, we are reminded once again of Michael Ondaatje’s unique artistry with language and of his stature as one of the finest poets writing today.

Review:

"His thrilling poems read like exquisite, unwritten Ondaatje novels." The Independent

Review:

"A breathtaking collection....If you're going to buy one book this year, buy this one. Ten years from now you'll still be reading it with pleasure." Sam Solecki, Books in Canada

Review:

"Michael Ondaatje's poems read with the same whimsical precision and authority one finds in his prose. He is the most sensibly ironic writer I've read in years, and the most generously disposed. Would that all worlds were this deftly attended." Robert Creeley

About the Author

Michael Ondaatje lives in Toronto. Handwriting is his 10th book of poetry.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780771068775
Author:
Ondaatje, Michael
Publisher:
Random House
Location:
Toronto :
Publication Date:
c1998
Binding:
HARDCOVER
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
78 p.

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