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March 1, 2016

"What lasts, what endures, as Shakespeare knew, is this:/ the story of a life." In his latest collection, MacArthur Fellow McGrath (In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys) gives us many stories, marching us year by year through the 20th century to tell its story by capturing an important individual or moment. Many of those represented are artists (Orson Welles claims the quote above), which deftly shows the cross-hatching of art and history; "Hearts of Darkness: Freud and Conrad (1901)" opens, "Messages from the interior: darkness & illumination,/ dreams and blood," then goes on to reference proper Vienna and colonial-era "Belgian savagery." Figures from Pablo Picasso to Chairman Mao recur, and even key artifacts such as Dupont's Fiber 66 appear. McGrath ably captures the flow of history, though sometimes it feels as if he's just getting through the facts ("The war changed me. Cambridge is a fond memory," from "Wittgenstein: Letter to Bertrand Russell (1919)." What's best are the sudden, affecting moments in the swirl of things: says Martha, the last passenger pigeon, "They are not like to treat you any kinder/ beneath a sky that echoes only the longing in their hearts." VERDICT This ambitious collection will especially satisfy those who appreciate narrative poetry. [See Prepub Alert, 12/7/15.]--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

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