Araby

Ormsby uses the literary and cultural traditions of the Middle-East to create a beautiful thematic collection of poems. There is much to be admired in his poetic technique, and perhaps even more to be envied in his knowledge of the very rich culture of the Middle-East. Islamic mysticism, Arabic poetry, and day-to-day scenery all find equal place in this collection.I feel that this collection is especially apropos currently, when the Middle-East is being so demonized. It helps to make the peoples of that reagion into individuals with a rich culture, not just Kalashnikov rifle wielders. The subject matter aids in making Ormsby's already remarkable poetry even more intriguing.Buy this book.

ARABY is a remarkable and highly unusual book of poems, one that can be read for the beauty and brilliance of the individual poems, but which also develops two characters, Jaham and Bald Adham, a poet and a car mechanic, who both go through their own visionary struggles. To say anything more about either one of them would be to ruin the often humorous excitement of learning about them along the way. By the end, the reader has gotten to know these two men as well as if reading a novel about them. Some individual poems - "Jaham Serenades a Snake," "Jaham at the Ruins of Recollection," "Jaham Deciphers the Scripts of Insomnia" - are among the finest I have ever read. As this selection of titles suggests, I may be partial to one of the characters, but I learned a lot from both of them. They're developed with humor, insight and depth (their own and those of the poet) and, combined with the voluminous knowledge Eric Ormsby has of the Arab world, they take the reader on a profound journey through a distinctive culture. In the sheer vitality of his language, Eric Ormsby is a writer of great dexterity, imagination and rhythm, and the excitement of reading his work includes a word-surprise of some sort in nearly every line. ARABY is a tremendously inspired book.