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Title: The Folding Cliffs : A Narrative by W.S. Merwin ISBN: 0-375-70151-6 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 March, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A powerful story and a fine poem.
Comment: This ambitious work tells the true story of one family's resistance to the wrong-headed efforts to quarantine victims of Hansen's disease (i.e., leprosy) on the Hawaiian islands. The narrative itself is surprisingly involving, with three-dimensional characters, beautiful scene painting, and propulsive drama. Merwin's poetry here takes a roughly anapestic form, somewhat similar in sound to Longfellow's "Evangeline" meter. (And "The Folding Cliffs" has many other interesting parallels with that 19th-century classic.) The language is at times too prosy for my taste, and Merwin's aversion to punctuation often gives the tale a breathless quality that fights against the narrative tempo. Neverthless, this is a great artistic achievement that deserves to be read and (hopefully) imitated.
Rating: 4
Summary: Patience rewards
Comment: I agree with most of the comments in the reviews to date (five, prior to mine). Some patience is required for reading this book. At times it's somewhat "foreign" (and unless you're Hawaiian and/or know Hawaii well, you're probably entitled to feel strange), but its language is uniquely rich and its construction and thought are stunningly insightful, very rewarding. Don't be surprised if you're rather inarticulate after reading this book. It's complicated, worth re-reading, and certainly a recommendation for adventurous readers.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great book but a lot of typos
Comment: I have just finished reading this delightful book. I am also a book editor and publisher, and would like to offer some suggestions should the book ever be reprinted or issued in a new edition. I am very aware of how errors creep in, and I have made a large number of bloopers myself, so no one is perfect, but I would hope a publisher with the vintage prestige of Knopf would make every effort to employ knowledgeable proofreaders. The book is very inconsistent in the spelling of Hawaiian words, with a large number of 'okina (apostrophes) and kahako (macrons) left out. There is at least one spelling error, the name of the newspaper Ka Leo o ka Lahui incorrectly spelled Ka Leo o ka Lauhui ("Voice of the Nation"). The list of personal and geograpnic names at the end is very useful, but far from complete, and it is very difficult to follow some of the text not knowing who some of these people or places are, or having to look back further in the text to identify them. Some of these may be misspelled, I don't know, although I am familiar with the island of Kaua'i (sometimes spelled Kauai in the book), its history and geography. I am also a friend of Frances Frazier, who very kindly recommended the book to me. I hope you give this book wide publicity, and that you have very successful sales. Best wishes,
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Title: The River Sound : Poems by W.S. Merwin ISBN: 0375704353 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 15 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Vixen by W.S. Merwin ISBN: 0679766014 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 25 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: East Window: The Asian Translations by W. S. Merwin ISBN: 1556590911 Publisher: Copper Canyon Press Pub. Date: December, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight : A New Verse Translation by W.S. Merwin ISBN: 0375414762 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Pupil : Poems by W.S. Merwin ISBN: 0375709649 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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