Synopses & Reviews
Many of the twenty-eight essays in have appeared in translation in seventeen countries; some have never been published in English before. They include introductions for books of avant-garde poets; collaborations with visual artists, and articles for publications such as , , and . One section focuses on writers and literary works: strange tales from classical and modern China; the Psalms in translation: a skeptical look at E. B. White's . Another section is a continuation of Weinberger's celebrated political articles collected in (a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Award), including a sequel to "What I Heard About Iraq," which the called the only antiwar "classic" of the Iraq War. A new installment of his magnificent linked "serial essay," , takes us on a journey down the Yangtze River during the Sung Dynasty. The reader will also find the unlikely convergences between Samuel Beckett and Octavio Paz, photography and anthropology, and, of course, oranges and peanuts, as well as an encomium for Obama, a manifesto on translation, a brief appearance by Shiva, and reflections on the color blue, death, exoticism, Susan Sontag, and the arts and war.
Review
"Weinberger sent me in search of new writers and books, things I had not heard of till then but wish I had." Robert Leiter
Review
"Constant evidence of astounding and genuine erudition that may well exceed what Ezra Pound yearned for almost 100 years earlier." Jewish Exponent
Synopsis
One section focuses on writers and literary works: strange tales from classical and modern China; the Psalms in translation: a skeptical look at E. B. White sNew York. Another section is a continuation of Weinberger s celebrated political articles collected in What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles (a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Award), including a sequel to What I Heard About Iraq, which the Guardian called the only antiwar classic of the Iraq War. A new installment of his magnificent linked serial essay, An Elemental Thing, takes us on a journey down the Yangtze River during the Sung Dynasty. The reader will also find the unlikely convergences between Samuel Beckett and Octavio Paz, photography and anthropology, and, of course, oranges and peanuts, as well as an encomium for Obama, a manifesto on translation, a brief appearance by Shiva, and reflections on the color blue, death, exoticism, Susan Sontag, and the arts and war. "
Synopsis
Presented at the PEN World Voices Festival as a "post-national" writer, Eliot Weinberger is "a sparkling essayist" (), and his writings "a boundary-crossing, shape-shifting cabinet of curiosities" ().
About the Author
Eliot Weinberger (b. NYC, 1949), is an essayist and translator. He won PEN’s first Gregory Kolovakos Award for promoting Hispanic literature in the US, and he is America’s first literary writer to receive Mexico’s Order of the Aztec Eagle. He lives in New York City.