Synopsis:
The Nigerian Nobel laureate presents a collection of new poems in homage to South African leader Nelson Mandela, excoriating political corruption and moral flabbiness and meditating on the ambivalences and ambiguities of life and love
From Library Journal:
The Nigerian writer's first book since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1986 sounds a further note of political urgency. Essentially direct address and hortatory, giving neither the speaker nor anyone else a chance to hide, these poems are probably better sungSoyinka's repetition and dialogue suggest poetry's origin as news delivered orally. Sense is through sound, making the logic of the line immediate, although sometimes associations are not clear; in "Like Rudolf Hess, the Man said," for instance, we don't know who the "designated" enemy is, as Soyinka creates associations between Mandela-Mengele, the Israelis, South Africans, Icarus, the gold rush, and Auschwitz. Poems of immediacy, translating reflection into anger. Rosaly DeMaios Roffman, Indiana Univ. of Penna., Indiana
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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