Mark Eisner's Blog - Posts Tagged "biography"
More amazing reviews for Neruda: The Poet's Calling...
some of the latest:
"Neruda: The Poet's Calling unfolds as a masterful weave of biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, a scrupulous portrait of a genius as vast and contradictory as the continent he loved."
--The Barnes & Noble Review
"In his sweeping and exhaustively researched biography, Mark Eisner plumbs the man behind the legend, a task for which he’s well-suited."
--Christian Science Monitor
"A thrilling read."
--Nina Serrano, KPFA La Raza Chronicles
!!!!
Please get a copy yourself and hopefully experience the same wonder and expansion...
"Neruda: The Poet's Calling unfolds as a masterful weave of biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, a scrupulous portrait of a genius as vast and contradictory as the continent he loved."
--The Barnes & Noble Review
"In his sweeping and exhaustively researched biography, Mark Eisner plumbs the man behind the legend, a task for which he’s well-suited."
--Christian Science Monitor
"A thrilling read."
--Nina Serrano, KPFA La Raza Chronicles
!!!!
Please get a copy yourself and hopefully experience the same wonder and expansion...
desde México!
El escritor Mark Eisner habla con @LudensMauricio sobre el libro 'Neruda: el llamado del poeta' pic.twitter.com/zZtXjGC3EY
— El Financiero TV (@ElFinancieroTv) August 13, 2018
Featured interview in Latin American Literature Today
https://twitter.com/eizmarcos/status/...
Overdue post of Roberto Brodsky 's piece on me, my Chile travels, Neruda camino, focusing on focusing on Neruda: The Poet's Calling / Neruda: The Biography of a Poet / Neruda: el llamado del poeta in @LatAmLitToday.
Grateful for the engaging conversation and his views on all of it:
"a forceful narration of rediscovery and appreciation, of terror and intelligence, that invites us to a new reading"
https://twitter.com/eizmarcos/status/...
in English y español, including this discussion (translated from the Spanish):
RB: You have told me that the intention of the book is not to create scandal, that you are interested in offering an updated approximation to his poetry, to his political activism, and also to his personal story. Would the presentation of the episodes of sexual violence and taboos be placed within that intention?
ME: I just want to write the truth; to expose what is there. I didn't want to do anything else. Nothing is secret, and I wanted to highlight certain things. Forget about taboos. For me, though, the most important thing is to provide context around whatever the reader might discover and find surprising or challenging—to analyze it and tell the reader what was going on at that specific period of time and situation, in the world, in Neruda's life. Why Stalin, for instance: why choose Stalin? There is a lot of controversy to that, but there is a reason that can help you understand why Neruda is Stalinist, compared to George Orwell who was in Spain at the same time. There is a history for that; the Chilean Communist Party, the Spanish Civil War, and so forth. The context is formed by those three sources that I talk about: poetry, life, and politics, and each one informs the others to make an open book.
RB: How do you hope the reader will receive these revelations?
ME: Someone wrote a review of the book on Amazon, stating that she was amazed and moved by these revelations, but that in the end, she gained a fuller understanding of who Neruda was and gained a deeper interest in his poetry, plus more awareness of Latin American history and the influence poets had. Then: "Perhaps most importantly, by the end of the book I personally felt a renewed desire to make room for reading and writing more poetry in my own life." I couldn't ask for a better result, and the controversial parts are a part of it.
On the other hand, a reviewer for The Millions wrote that she had four books of poetry by Neruda, who, she thought, was "a man of substance, courage, and romance", as she wrote. But while she praised my biography, her idea of Neruda now, and I quote, "made my heart sink into my stomach". After reading it, she tossed those four books, she said, "in a recycling bag for those who might decide that these revelations are not deal breakers or, worse yet, don’t know this side of Neruda at all."
The entire article is here: http://www.latinamericanliteraturetod...
Overdue post of Roberto Brodsky 's piece on me, my Chile travels, Neruda camino, focusing on focusing on Neruda: The Poet's Calling / Neruda: The Biography of a Poet / Neruda: el llamado del poeta in @LatAmLitToday.
Grateful for the engaging conversation and his views on all of it:
"a forceful narration of rediscovery and appreciation, of terror and intelligence, that invites us to a new reading"
https://twitter.com/eizmarcos/status/...
in English y español, including this discussion (translated from the Spanish):
RB: You have told me that the intention of the book is not to create scandal, that you are interested in offering an updated approximation to his poetry, to his political activism, and also to his personal story. Would the presentation of the episodes of sexual violence and taboos be placed within that intention?
ME: I just want to write the truth; to expose what is there. I didn't want to do anything else. Nothing is secret, and I wanted to highlight certain things. Forget about taboos. For me, though, the most important thing is to provide context around whatever the reader might discover and find surprising or challenging—to analyze it and tell the reader what was going on at that specific period of time and situation, in the world, in Neruda's life. Why Stalin, for instance: why choose Stalin? There is a lot of controversy to that, but there is a reason that can help you understand why Neruda is Stalinist, compared to George Orwell who was in Spain at the same time. There is a history for that; the Chilean Communist Party, the Spanish Civil War, and so forth. The context is formed by those three sources that I talk about: poetry, life, and politics, and each one informs the others to make an open book.
RB: How do you hope the reader will receive these revelations?
ME: Someone wrote a review of the book on Amazon, stating that she was amazed and moved by these revelations, but that in the end, she gained a fuller understanding of who Neruda was and gained a deeper interest in his poetry, plus more awareness of Latin American history and the influence poets had. Then: "Perhaps most importantly, by the end of the book I personally felt a renewed desire to make room for reading and writing more poetry in my own life." I couldn't ask for a better result, and the controversial parts are a part of it.
On the other hand, a reviewer for The Millions wrote that she had four books of poetry by Neruda, who, she thought, was "a man of substance, courage, and romance", as she wrote. But while she praised my biography, her idea of Neruda now, and I quote, "made my heart sink into my stomach". After reading it, she tossed those four books, she said, "in a recycling bag for those who might decide that these revelations are not deal breakers or, worse yet, don’t know this side of Neruda at all."
The entire article is here: http://www.latinamericanliteraturetod...
