The works of Albert Russo of the past 40 years, in both English and
French, reviewed and commented in these two languages, with essays
and photos by the author. excerpt of James Baldwin's letter: Dear
Albert Russo: l've read everything you sent me, and I like your
work very much indeed. It has a very gentle surface and a savage
under-tow - the fiction - and I applaud the wicked portrait of
Ionesco. You're a dangerous man. My friend, the Black woman
novelist, Toni Morrison, knows what you are talking about. l'm in
Paris on the 24th of this month and hope to see you. all the best,
James Baldwin. ALBERT RUSSO. PAINTING THE TOWER OF BABEL. Hyde
(Cheshire). New Hope International (UK) - in World Literature Today
(USA) Albert Russo's poetry deserves to be put before us in this
handy and attractive format. Each word is in its place, no other
word would do, and extracting component strings of words by
themselves do not constitute poetry to the extent they do within
their completed whole, rather like jewels without settings. Yet
there is nothing esoteric about his verse. To the contrary,
simplicity rules, and accessibility is immediate, although
successive readings do disclose certain cunning and bemused
conceits invisible at first. As proof, I can only quote one
exemplary poem in its entirety, Expectancy. there's a world at
peace and there's a world at war the frontiers between the two
shift and overlap like waves over the breakers at low tide and as
you watch the evening news you feel your heart skitter across the
water on the safe side or so you will yourself to believe but when
in the dead of night you switch off the bedlamp the rumblings under
your skin at first distant and familiar start sending out
portentous signals then somewhere around the solar plexus there's
an expectancy of pain searing as the alarm caused by misfired
thunder it shoots through the arteries to the cortex making the
flesh quiver in its wake and suddenly the echo of a reverberating
crackle turns your entire body into an electric web so tightly
packed you instinctively embrace all the destructive power of
mankind's folly This poem is not typical, since none of Russo's
are. His poems manifest a vast capacity for experimentation in form
and subject, surely a signpost of a poet still busily a-growing.
Highly recommended. L'oeuvre d'Albert Russo sur 40 ans, recensee en
francais et en anglais, avec ses propres essais, et ses photos.
James Baldwin: "J'aime votre ecriture, car dans un style police
vous exprimez des sentiments violents, faisant eclater des verites
terrifiantes, Vous derangez sans en avoir l'air." "La nostalgie de
l'enfance decrite par un grand ecrivain: Albert Russo. Retenez bien
ce nom. On en reparlera." Jean-Claude Bourret, critique litteraire
"Je ne peux resister au plaisir de vous feliciter. Tout cela est
excellent. J'ai beaucoup aime vos poemes." Robert Goffin, de
l'Academie Royale de Belgique. "Il y a la une facon de conter qui
va comme une riviere souterraine qui affleurerait de temps en temps
pour replonger aussitot. Pensee allusive, langue souvent trop
chargee (comme cette nature tropicale dont vous parlez si bien),
mots et images parfois manieres, tout cela contribue a creer un
climat chaud et blesse, un climat troublant. On ne l'oublie pas...
des les premieres pages, on sent un ton nouveau auquel on ne peut
rester indifferent." Paul Willems, ecrivain, poete et Directeur du
Musee des Beaux-Arts (Bruxelles) "Je viens de lire les deux volumes
que vous m'avez envoyes et leur ton m'a beaucoup touche" Joseph
Kessel, de l'Academie Francaise. "Pierre Emmanuel (de l'Academie
Francaise) tient a vous dire le plaisir qu'il a eu a lire ces pages
a la fois difficiles, sensuelles et pleines d'humour." "Le message
humain, c'est cela le 'fetiche' qui fait vibrer les ouvrages
d'Albert Russo. Une oeuvre retentissante." La Depeche de
Lubumbashi, Congo
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