Books by David R. Slavitt and Complete Book Reviews

David R. Slavitt, Author . Catbird $20 (189p) ISBN 978-0-945774-56-3
As its title indicates, this offering by prolific poet, translator and novelist Slavitt is a metanovel: a "novel about the novel." This genre has become, since the '60s, as convention-driven as the romance novel. There's the...
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David R. Slavitt, Author Louisiana State University Press $26.95 (154p) ISBN 978-0-8071-1781-1
Jack Smith, the embittered and cynical protagonist of Slavitt's 50th book, is not a pleasant person-yet the author (Crossroads) carries off the feat of making him sympathetic to readers. Smith is about to be laid off from his position as assistant...
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David R. Slavitt, Author Louisiana State University Press $22.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-8071-2047-7
A literary biography in the form of verse, Slavitt's long poem chronicles the life of Lorenzo da Ponte, an obscure writer of vast ambition and frequent failure whose only enduring works are the several librettos he wrote for Mozart. Featuring a cast
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David R. Slavitt, Author Louisiana State University Press $16.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-8071-2048-4
A literary biography in the form of verse, Slavitt's long poem chronicles the life of Lorenzo da Ponte, an obscure writer of vast ambition and frequent failure whose only enduring works are the several librettos he wrote for Mozart. Featuring a cast
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David R. Slavitt, Author Catbird Press $19.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-945774-41-9
""Get thee to a nunnery!"" Hamlet advises Ophelia. ""Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?"" Sex and sin are much on Slavitt's (The Cliff) mind as he retells two of Shakespeare's plays--Measure for Measure and Romeo and Juliet--to explore...
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David R. Slavitt, Author Wesleyan University Press $24.95 (358p) ISBN 978-0-8195-6806-9
A prolific poet, novelist, translator, crank and intellectual elitist, Slavitt is the antithetical politician, but that didn't stop him from entering the 2004 Massachusetts State Legislature race to run against a long-time Democratic incumbent in a...
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David R. Slavitt, Author Louisiana State University Press $14.95 (45p) ISBN 978-0-8071-1597-8
These extended meditations contemplate with studied intelligence and subtle wit the complexities of art, imagination and the `` slow and painful business'' of human existence. Parlayingon a diverse range of historical and mythological characters for
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David R. Slavitt, Author Louisiana State University Press $15.95 (64p) ISBN 978-0-8071-1753-8
``To claim the poem as mine would be to tell / only that half-truth that's worse than a lie,'' Slavitt ( Equinox ) says in one poem here. Perhaps so, but that should not entail working with a voice so superficial that it reveals nothing of its...
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David R. Slavitt, Author Doubleday Books $17.95 (268p) ISBN 978-0-385-18884-5
According to journalist-novelist Slavitt (The Killing of the King, etc.), the quality of a physician has little to do with his or her grades on medical-school admission tests or performance during the various stages of training. This overview of the
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David R. Slavitt, Author Louisiana State University Press $19.95 (179p) ISBN 978-0-8071-1364-6
In formal, elegant language well suited to a military tale set in 19th century Austria, the author seems at first to spoof regimental ceremony and the inchoate lusts of Stefan, a virginal lieutenant billeted in the bourgeois cottage of a stout,...
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David R. Slavitt, Author Atheneum Books $0 (213p) ISBN 978-0-689-12079-4
This remarkably dark, funny and spiritually anguished novel begins as Slavitt's narrator, a down-and-out journalist for a sleazy Florida tabloid, writes up the life of a victim of a mass-murder at the local Piggly-Wiggly. Conducting his gruesomely...
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David R. Slavitt, Author Louisiana State University Press $18.95 (175p) ISBN 978-0-8071-1665-4
The title of this collection of 14 elegant, nostalgic stories is ironic; all of these tales are precisely situated in real-life situations and dilemmas. Often the narrator is a divorced man, ruefully and unsuccessfully trying to reestablish old...
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David R. Slavitt, Author Louisiana State University Press $22.95 (190p) ISBN 978-0-8071-1813-9
Betrayals, sexual revenge and the havoc that family members wreak on one another reverberate through this intriguing novel, in which Slavitt ( Alice at 80 ) splices together three stories with vastly different settings. The first tale recreates the...
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David R. Slavitt, Author, Bill Adler, Jr., Author Doubleday Books $16.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-385-23007-0
This third effort by the team who produced the Robins Family whodunits will probably be popular despite its ostentatious, contrived tone. Events unfold in flashbacks as Leonard Castle flees through the dark streets of Manhattan, trying to escape a...
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