Letters from Aldenderry

by Philip Nikolayev

This is cosmopolitan one-man theater at its best. Words do not swallow the they flow to a varied musical rhythm and make sense. Nikolayev's collection models a persuasive modern hero-an uprooted intellectual at home in diverse cultures who stares at the world through a unique pair of eyes.

122 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 2006

Reviews

[Philip Nikolayev · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this (my latest), so it'd be a conflict of interest to review it.

[Konstantin Astafurov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philip!!! Litmus test is one of my favs

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip Nikolayev is witty, and if you think that's common in poetry, then read these poems. The wit I'm talking about is quick and (apparently) effortless, light as a monkey, not the lumbering elephant wit of self-congratulatory poetry, or the slumming inconsequence of Updike poodles. Nikolayev uses his linguistic predicament - English is his "second language" - to pretty awesome effect, slapping grammar and syntax around until they begin to make a weird mirror-world sense. Or pocket-world. Anyway, not the world of most contemporary American poetry.