Illywhacker14 reviews Peter Carey Faber & Faber, 2004 Grotesque and interesting + A memorable book, worth reading. + lyrically, weirdly composed + Illywhacker, Whacky, Carey             Voss7 reviews Patrick White Vintage, 1994 Voss: journeys of exploration + Cardboard Characters Set In The Australian Frontier, But Excellent Prose + Voss - powerful Australian epic + Tragic and unforgettable + One of the great novels             An American Tragedy (Signet Classics)102 reviews Theodore Dreiser Signet Classics, 2000 great book + Welcome To The Machine + classic American epic, tragic and compelling + American Society, Dissected             A Lost Lady (Virago Modern Classics)22 reviews Willa Cather Virago UK, 2006 A Captivating Novellete! + Compact and beautiful + A tiny gem of a book. You'll be thinking about it long after you're finished. + Frontier loneliness invades this marvalous novel. + A Book About Old Society             Oscar and Lucinda (FF Classics)55 reviews Peter Carey Faber Faber Ltd, 1999 astonishingly good! + A fine book + Wonderful characters; great writing + A complex and exhilirating novel + Gambling and Love             The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens17 reviews Wallace Stevens Vintage, 1990 A poet's eye + an exquisite enclopadeic and imaginative mind + The greatest American poet of the 20th Century + The great American poet of the twentieth century             Tender Buttons12 reviews Gertrude Stein Dover Publications, 1997 (un)lost generation + proto-fem/experimentalist + Ms. Stein fires large dusty electronics daily, how satisfying. Mimic and talk and write like some kind of Gertrude Stein. We don't know what roots are - rootless - my generation is not lost - we're staying put on the couch where we live. No one can say we're not (or are) expatriate because the shores of our big sea end at the edges of a computer screen - are ...             An Imaginary Life15 reviews David Malouf Vintage, 1996 What Might Have Been + A literary classic - really! + "Brilliant short novel about civilization" + Amazing + Fully Human!             Spoon River Anthology Collier Books, 1974             The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Vol. 1: 1909-19395 reviews William Carlos Williams, A. Walton Litz, ... New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1991 The foundation of WCW's art + All together-- the poems are even better + Intense Words and Feelings + Intense             Literary Essays of Ezra Pound2 reviews Ezra Pound New Directions, 1968 Great essays from the modernist era + Excellent Introduction to Modernist Poetry I find that reading just the first two essay was worth the money I spent on this book. Pound writes his literary essay with creativity, intelligence, and humor that are rare even among the best essayists. "A retrospect" is a great guide to use for those who takes interest in writing poetry. ...             The Making of Americans: Being a History of a Family's Progress (American Literature Series)2 reviews Gertrude Stein Dalkey Archive Press, 1995 The great unsung classic of the twentieth century. + Beautifully written! What starts of as an anecdotal recounting of what I imagine is Stein's forefathers and foremothers immigrant experience launches off into a brilliant, highly intellectual examination and rhapsody of individuality and conformity among other things (like death and consciousness and the battle ...             The House of Mirth1 review Edith Wharton Virago UK, 2006 A Difficult Read For Me, A Bit Like Deciphering Shakespeare's English I have to say this was no easy read for me. I had a bit of a difficult time with the English. Edith Wharton writes in a way that makes things sound beautiful yes, but I wasn't always confident that I was comprehending the exact meaning she intended. The English is far from plain or direct, much ...             The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged18 reviews Robert Frost Henry Holt and Co., 1969 Frost's treasure + Wonderful and Enriching + Robert Frost, the poet for poetry lovers + North Country Simple?             Death in the Woods: Stories1 review Sherwood Anderson Liveright, 2006 A little uneven, but pretty good. Many of the great writers of the past century claim Sherwood Anderson as a major influence, including Hemmingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck and Henry Miller. Anderson's classic Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of short stories about a small town, is one of my favorite books. His masterful style is ...             Paterson8 reviews William Carlos Williams New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1995 One of my favorite books of any kind. + He stole it from me... every word. + A Signature Work. Paterson is a book-length poem that tells you everything you need to know about America. If it appears complex and impenetrable then you need to put the thing down for a day or two, and then try again, because this is really a joy, there's nothing impenetrable about it! Read it when you really ...             My Antonia (Signet Classics)4 reviews Willa Cather Signet Classics, 2005 A TRUE AMERICAN CLASSIC... + The Great American Novel + A Timeless Classic! I first read this book when I was in junior high school. I admit that, at the time, I did not appreciate the strengths of the book and the quality of its writing. I am quite glad that I decided to give it another chance, as, having re-read it, I now understand why it is considered to be a classic ...             The Cantos of Ezra Pound (New Directions Paperbook)27 reviews Ezra Pound New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1996 To Mr. Meyerhofer, + Par Excelente + A flawed masterpiece Ezra Pound is the greatest American poet. I love your condemnation of him. And I do not wish to thought of as sarcastic because the controversy is half of the aura about Mr. Pound's dynamic presence in the poetry of the past century. Robert Graves called Pound a charlatan and I do not know if ...             Sister Carrie (Norton Critical Editions)3 reviews Theodore Dreiser W. W. Norton & Company, 1991 An essential read + History Repeats Itself + Determinism at work: Carrie rises; Hurstwood falls Sister Carrie is undoubtedly a hallmark of American literature. Whether one reads this as a social Darwinesque glorification of American society or a scathing criticism of capitalist individualism and urban naturalism, Dreiser's work encapsulates the fabric of American society and history. ...             The Professor's House (Virago Modern Classics)24 reviews Willa Cather Virago UK, 2006 Oddest, Most Wonderful Book I've Read in Years + Worth reading but not Cather's best + A most enjoyable reading experience Willa Cather is one of the top five American writers. She gets little notice, it seems, today. I find that very strange, given the feminist movement in America. I've read three of her other books and this is the oddest, and most wonderful, or perhaps I forget how O Pioneers, Death Comes for the ...