Necessary Distance: Essays and Criticism

Clarence Major. Coffee House Press, $15.95 (239pp) ISBN 978-1-56689-109-7

From ""A Paris Fantasy Transformed"" to ""America Placed on Trial"" poet Clarence Major, in addition to writing nine books of poems (selected in Configurations) and nine novels, has been steadily producing trenchant literary and cultural criticism. The passing years have yielded Necessary Distance: Essays and Criticism, a collection of reviews, polemics, musings and examinations about American art and life. ( May)

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