Dancing in Odessa

This book cannot be praised enough. Here you have the opportunity to read the early poems of one of the generation's best poets. As has been remarked by previous reviewers, there is an optimism in Kaminsky's poems even amidst tragedy; an unearthly eloquence and musicality to each and every line. It is an unbelievably refreshing tone. You'll breeze through the book in no time and then realize that you can spend a day on every page. This is a book of transport - to another time, another country, in other bodies and minds - and what you will find there is a new mythos - cities of birds and song and silence all together. And there, on the bench reading a small book filled with beauty in the midst of cobblestones? Why it is you.

I had the pleasure of hearing Ilya Kaminsky read his poetry from Dancing in Odessa the other day at my college. He came into the room and seemed a bit shy at first. Uncertain as to "what to do" he began to read from his book. A powerful and lyrical voice filled the room and everyone was glued to her/his seat listening. He not only writes wonderful, thought-provoking and dazzling poems but he reads with an energy unsurpassed. He uses his voice in incredible ways, incredible ranges and he employs his whole body in the experience. One gets the sense she is witness to something profound and passionate, spellbinding. Kaminsky's voice is strange, beautiful and musical.

Kudos to Tupelo Press for selecting and publishing Dancing in Odessa (the book itself is lovely). If you're bored with most contemporary American poetry, or don't trust most poetry in translation, you've got to read this. Here is a poet that can make you believe in the possibililty of poetry, that real poetry is still possible.

This book was like a blow to the head - thunderously moving, intensely tragic, uplifting, and comic by turns. The way the author weaves his poems together in the book is inspiring - a turn of phrase or image recurs in a way that seems totally natural, as in musical phrases. His love poetry to "Natalia" is everything love poetry should be. A pleasure to read - and the book is even more amazing considering the writer is so young and that English is not his first language. Also, unlike so many modern poets, though Kaminsky's poetry often deals with horrific events, the overall movement of the book is optimistic, even dare I say the work uplifting. Applause, applause.

Reviewed by Small Spiral Notebook:It was in 1993 that the family of poet/lawyer Ilya Kaminsky received asylum as political refugees. Kaminsky has never returned to the "city of his childhood" because the country he left exists only in his imagination. Still, he has documented that life and its memories in his first full-length book, "Dancing In Odessa." Winner of the 2002 Dorset Prize from Tupelo Press, "Dancing In Odessa" is a joyous achievement. Passionate. Compassionate. Daring in its use of imaginative language. Though the work, written in English, has a deep feeling for a life lived in another country, the words transcend to one universal. The book opens with "Author's Prayer," a work that sets the tone for the work. I will praise your madness, andin a language not mine, speakof music that wakes us, musicin which we move. For whatever I sayis a kind of petition, and the darkestdays must I praise. Continuing to speak, the importance of words and language, is predominant in Kaminsky's poems. Perhaps that can be contributed to his early life in the Soviet Union; among other things, his grandfather killed and his grandmother exiled to Siberia. Kaminsky has stated that "family narrative" is not his "thing;" his goal is one of "imaginary memoir," of being a storyteller and so he writes. In Praise of Laughter," he mentions the need for continuance: all our words, heaps of burning feathersthat rise and rise with each retelling. And in the title poem: I retell the story the light etchesInto my hand: Little book, go to the city without me. One section of the book, Musica Humana, is an elegy for Osip Mandelstam, a Russian poet who dared to criticize Joseph Stalin in his work. Mandelstam was imprisoned and exiled. The poems are simply delicious in their use of language and imagery. Once or twice in his life, a manis peeled like apples. What's left is a voicethat splits his beingdown to the center. We see: obscenity, fright mudandHe believed in the human being. Could notcure himselfof Petersburg. He cited by heartphone numbersof the dead. "Dancing In Odessa" is a collection of poetry that excited me. Not only due to Kaminsky's use of the English language, but for the truths he shares. In the section "Praise," he speaks of his family's leaving Odessa. This is how we live on earth, Kaminsky writes. "A flock of sparrows./the darkness, a magician, finds quarters/behind our ears. We don't know what life is,/who makes it, the reality is thick/with longing. We put it up to our lips/and drink."