Points for a Compass Rose by Evan S. Connell

by Evan S. Connell

“We have here on the planet with us a man of such courage and strength of spirit that he has not lost what Alfred Adler calls ‘the nerve for excellence.’ He has kept it despite the burden of an awareness not only of the enormity of his project and of the limitations of his own human understanding, but also of the abject ignorance and indifference of his audience...“Somehow Connell makes you care. Many modern poets demand a good deal of work; Connell excites it. Sometimes the note-taker’s [narrator] tone is hectoring, even belligerent; if you have any competitive spirit at all, you seize a thread—any thread—follow it, and lo, it traces a pattern… you understand at last that these notes are not tentative explorations, and far less are they ‘’ they are instead the magnificent artifices of a giant intellect...“These poems are masterpieces. You could bend a lifetime of energy to their study, and have lived well. The fabric of their meaning is seamless, inexhaustible… their language is steely and bladelike; from both of its surfaces flickering lights gleam. Each page sheds insight on every other page; understanding snaps back and forth, tacking like a sloop up the long fjord of mystery.”—Annie Dillard, Harper

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Evan Shelby Connell Jr. (August 17, 1924 – January 10, 2013) was a U.S. novelist, poet, and short-story writer. His writing covered a variety of genres, although he published most frequently in fiction.

In 2009, Connell was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, for lifetime achievement. On April 23, 2010, he was awarded a Los Angeles Times Book Prize: the Robert Kirsch Award, for "a living author with a substantial connection to the American West, whose contribution to American letters deserves special recognition."

Connell was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the only son of Evan S. Connell, Sr. (1890–1974), a physician, and Ruth Elton Connell. He had a sister Barbara (Mrs. Matthew Zimmermann) to whom he dedicated his novel Mrs. Bridge (1959). He graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City in 1941. He started undergraduate work at Dartmouth College but joined the Navy in 1943 and became a pilot. After the end of World War II, he graduated from the University of Kansas in 1947, with a B.A. in English. He studied creative writing at Columbia University in New York and Stanford University in California. He never married, and lived and worked in Sausalito, California for decades.
(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bizarre. Original. Interesting. Impassioned. Somewhat disjointed, somewhat redundant during parts, but definitely took me on a journey through a dark cynical dream-world in which figures from various points in human history repeat themselves, quite eerily. A focus on human nature is definitely prominent, the overall message being something like, Beware. We are no better off than we have ever been as a species.

Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books. I have no idea why I bought it, maybe the cover art? maybe the lengthy, smarty title? Regardless, it is amazing. Impossible for me to describe so I won't make an attempt. Just find it, buy it, and read it. Often.

[Tait Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bewildering and brilliant.