Missing a Beat-- The Rants and Regrets of Seymour Krim, Edited and with an introduction by Mark Cohen, Syracuse UP '10, $29.95, 236 pages, ISBN #0815609485. Index, works cited, appendix, unillustrated.
As time recedes, deconstructions of the works of such Beat Generation writers as William Burroughs, Allan Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac continue unabated. But one prominent writer of the era, Seymour Krim, seems to have slipped through the literary cracks. Author Mark Cohen attempts to set the record straight in his new book, gathering a collection of 18 essays Krim published from 1958 to 1988 in such publications as Village Voice, New York Magazine, and the New York Times. In them he "pioneered a new style of subjective and personal reporting to write about the American scene from a Jewish angle." Cohen calls Krim's style "aggressively unacademic." Mark Cohen, who lives in San Francisco, wrote Last Century of a Sephardic Community: The Jews of Monastir, 1839--1943.
Christianity, Truth and Weakening Faith -- A Dialogue by Gianni Vattimo and Rene' Girard; Pierpaolo Antonello, editor; William McCuaig, translator. Columbia UP '10, 124 pages, ISBN #0231148283. Bibliography, source notes, no index or illustrations.
In their new work, philosophers Gianni Vattimo and Rene' Girard seek to "broker a peace between relativism and religion in people's public, private and ethical lives." While both are progressives, they add richness to the dialogue on which this book is based by borrowing from such writers as Max Weber, Eric Auerback, and Marcel Gauchet. They conclude that Christianity is "the religion of the exit from religion" and that "democracy, civil rights, the free market, and individual freedoms are all facilitated by Christian culture." Vattimo is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Turn and a member of the European Parliament. Girard taught language, literature, and civilization at Stanford University until he retired in 1995.
Reading Emily Dickinson's Letters -- Critical Essays, Edited by Jane Donahue Eberwein and Cindy MacKenzie, $34.95, 304 pages, ISBN #1558497412. General index, index of letters, index of poems, notes on contributors, works cited, sparsely illustrated.
This volume should be extremely instructive to a new generation that believes communications should be limited to 140 characters typed with their thumbs. But when real letters were in fashion, such writers as Emily Dickinson called them "a joy of Earth." A panel of literary scholars here focuses on Dickinson's own letters -- "cryptic and allusive in style, dazzling in verbal effects, and sensitively attuned to the(ir) recipients...." Interestingly, scholars have deconstructed Dickinson's letters since Mabel Loomis Todd published the first selection in 1894. This latest volume examines the poet's thoughts "on love, marriage, gender roles, art, and death, while unraveling mysteries ranging from legal discourse to Etruscan smiles." Editors Jane Donahue Eberwein and Cindy MacKenzie are both authors of major works on Emily Dickinson.
