Parini is an accomplished novelist (Benjamin's Crossing, p. 410,
etc.), poet, biographer, and critic, so it is no surprise that
these essays roam all over the literary map. In fact, this volume
feels like three shorter books cobbled together. The 20 pieces
included here (some appearing for the first time), written over the
past 25 years, are grouped in three categories: personal essays
with an autobiographical bent; appreciations of other poets; essays
on the embattled ground of literary theory. The result highlights
Parini's strengths and weaknesses as a writer of nonfiction. The
personal essays exhibit considerable charm, particularly when
Parini is discussing the process of writing. Regrettably, there's a
fair amount of repetition here; for example, we learn several times
that Parini and his wife (also a writer) both take considerable
pleasure in writing in restaurants and cafes, once in an essay on
that habit, again in a piece on the year they spent in Italy, and
yet again in a paean to small-town life. By contrast, the middle
section is mercifully free of this problem. Unfortunately, with the
exception of an excellent piece on Frost - one which helps make
that icon of literature seem new once more - the rest of this
section is stodgily written, fragrant with the aroma of footnotes
left behind and about as compelling as an evening with someone's
old graduate seminar papers. That said, it's a complete surprise,
then, that Parini's writing on the current wars over theory are
incisive and engaging. Drawing on his own experiences as poet,
teacher, biographer, and novelist, he makes some nicely forthright
judgments on the simultaneous need for and suspicion of theory.
Steering a modest middle ground, he makes a sound case for the
poststructutalists without being chained to their excesses. A book
to be dipped into - at least in its first and last sections -
rather than read through, but not without its felicities. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Distinguished poet and novelist Jay Parini presents some of his
best essays -- both classic and unpublished works -- on topics
ranging from baseball to Frost and Emerson to the culture of
creative writing. For aspiring writers, "Some Necessary Angels" is
an illuminating glimpse into the workshop of a distinguished
novelist and critic. For readers who share Parini's love of
language, it is an invigorating expression of faith.
General
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