Al Babul: a parable

by Robert Duncan

Twelve men come out of the West, hoping to change a little corner of the East. Their to build a progressive international university on the edge of the desert. But it isn’t long before the goalposts start to shift, and when a thirteenth man muscles his oar in, the desert comes back to haunt them where it hurts. Al Babul is a a blackly comic satire, on Utopian hubris and academic cant.

819 pages, Paperback

Published August 28, 2020

About the author

Robert Edward Duncan (January 7, 1919 – February 3, 1988) was an American poet associated with any number of literary traditions and schools, Duncan is often identified with the poets of the New American Poetry and Black Mountain College. Duncan saw his work as emerging especially from the tradition of Pound, Williams and Lawrence. Duncan was a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance.