Attention Span – Simon Schuchat

Tony Towle | Winter Journey | Hanging Loose | 2008

The romantic temperment, tempered by time, cool and classical.

James Church | Corpse in the Koryo | St Martins | 2007

North Korean detective Inspector O solves the mysteries of the universe.

Jack Spicer | My Vocabulary Did this to me | Wesleyan | 2008

All of me, why not take all of me!

Paul Clark | The Chinese Cultural Revolution: A History | Cambridge | 2008

An account, not of the politics, but of the culture—how those model operas were collectively created, what happened to painting, what about the movies—sympathetic and brilliant.

August Kleinzahler | Sleeping it off in Rapid City: Poems, New and Selected | FSG | 2008

The tough guy, a guilty pleasure.

Susan Naquin | Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400-1900 | California | 2000

A beautiful, granular history of the celestial capital when it was still itself, from the Yongle Emperor to the Boxers.

Benjamin Friedlander | The Missing Occasion of Saying Yes | Subpress | 2007

Lovely music of what happens, gracefully.

Alice Notley | In the Pines | Penguin | 2007

The American sound, clear and chill—need I explain?

Stephen Owen | The Late Tang: Poetry of the mid-9th century | Harvard East Asian Monographs | 2007

Belated companion to his high Tang masterwork, fully its equal—what you need on Li Shangyin, Du Mu, Bo Juyi, and the milieu.

Der Nister | The Family Mashber | New York Review Books Classics | 2008

Magic socialist realism in the shetl of Berdichev.

Ron Padgett | How to Be Perfect | Coffee House | 2007

As is.

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More Simon Schuchat here.