Deaf Republic

February 1, 2019

Kaminsky (Dancing in Odessa) has done honorable work in poetry as a collaborative translator and perhaps most visibly as the coeditor of The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry, but his poetry has not loomed large until now. Born in the former Soviet Union and himself deaf, Kaminsky has created a haunting and almost indescribable testament about some of the darkest places of the human spirit. Part closet drama, part long narrative poem, this work uses deafness and idiosyncratic sign language to convey shifting meanings of awareness, rebellion, otherness, and silence as he spins the interlocking stories of a deaf boy, a young married couple, and an intrepid middle-aged woman puppeteer, who is the incendiary force in a fitful resistance to pointless, brutal repression in an unnamed country. Kaminsky has lived in the United States long enough that his rhythms and cadences sit securely in English; many of his images are striking and memorable, although the story he tells is far from reassuring. VERDICT The product of 15 years of meditation, this chilling work--an important warning about the forces of repression and a quiet salute to the courage of the few who resist--heralds the maturity of an important voice in world poetry.--Graham Christian, formerly with Andover-Harvard Theological Lib., Cambridge, MA

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