Deeds of Utmost Kindness [Paperback]

A haunting and peculiar travelogue, Deeds of the Utmost Kindness employs forms as diverse as haiku and prose poetry in settings that range from Japan to the rural Ozarks to contemporary Moscow. The compelling strangeness of the poems’ precise details exposes varied rhythms of thought and illustrated how different logics work in the metaphoric structures of changing places . Yet behind the uneasy sense of dislocation felt by the constant traveler lies the personal, essentially moral, voice of the poet as observer.A travelogue that employs diverse settings and styles of poetry.FORREST GANDER is Associate Professor of English at Providence College in Rhode Island and author of Lynchburg (1993) and Rush to the Lake (1988).“One of the most original and fascinating books of poetry I have seen in some time. As its strange travelogue format becomes apparent, it begins to seem the fulfillment of these lines from ‘Figures of Travel’: ‘the language which escapes you in one country haunts you in another.’ One hears so much about how contemporary poetry has alienated its audience, but this book seems one to which people who read contemporary fiction would be strongly attracted”“Gander is exceptional in the subtlety of his perception and proposals, a great ‘reader’ pf other cultures, and a very resourceful poet.”