Synopses & Reviews
The first collection of essays by the Nobel laureate.
Derek Walcott has been publishing essays in The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and elsewhere for more than twenty years. What the Twilight Says collects these pieces to form a volume of remarkable elegance, concision, and brilliance. It includes Walcott's moving and insightful examinations of the paradoxes of Caribbean culture, his Nobel lecture, and his reckoning of the work and significance of such poets as Robert Lowell, Joseph Brodsky, Robert Frost, Les Murray, and Ted Hughes, and of prose writers such as V. S. Naipaul and Patrick Chamoiseau. On every subject he takes up, Walcott the essayist brings to bear the lyric power and syncretic intelligence that have made him one of the major poetic voices of our time.
Review
"Walcott's first compilation of essays (and a short story) originally published between 1970 and 1997 gathers together close readings of his favorite writers such as Lowell, Larkin, and Brodsky, and a miscellany of insights into Caribbean culture, including his 1992 Nobel address. Walcott's influence in American letters and world literature is an exceptional blessing and the language in the essays is as lush and energetic as the lyrics in his poems and plays. All to say, how nice it is to have another 'collection' of Mr. Walcott's writing." Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"There is no one writing in English at present who can join power with delicacy the way Walcott can."--Sven Birkerts,
The New Republic"Walcott is a kingfisher critic, with flashing insights, an original who writes a profound, poetic prose . . . Derek Walcott's words go from strength to strength."--Paula Burnett, The Times (London)
Synopsis
The first collection of essays by the Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, What the Twilight Says, drawn from pieces originally published in The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and elsewhere.
This collection forms a volume of remarkable elegance, concision, and brilliance. It includes Walcott's moving and insightful examinations of the paradoxes of Caribbean culture, his Nobel lecture, and his reckoning of the work and significance of such poets as Robert Lowell, Joseph Brodsky, Robert Frost, Les Murray, and Ted Hughes, and of prose writers such as V. S. Naipaul and Patrick Chamoiseau.
On every subject he takes up, Walcott the essayist brings to bear the lyric power and syncretic intelligence that made him one of the major poetic voices of our time.
About the Author
Derek Walcott was born in St. Lucia in 1930. His recent works include
Omeros and
The Bounty. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. He lives in New York City and Castries, St. Lucia.