Reviews
"Hyam Plutzik's poems have haunted me for twenty-five years. And they seem even more alive and special now than they did when I first found them. He has a kinship with Isaac Bashevis Singer, drawing his strengths in a similar way, directly and openly, from that ancient tradition, yet engaging the modern world as a stripped soul--with a point-blank, wholehearted simplicity of voice. His visions are authentic and piercing, and the song in them is strange--dense and harrowing, with unforgettable tones. The best of his work seems to me marvelously achieved, a sacred book."--Ted Hughes, Hyam Plutzik: The Collected Poems "We will never know what Plutzik might have yet written had he lived longer, but those who know his work agree that a significant literary voice was prematurely silenced."--Edward Moran and Philip Witte, Paris Review "Though written in a more formal language and with more classical allusions than the Beats would tolerate, Plutzik's poem treats familiar Cold War themes of anxiety, terror, paranoia, espionage, frustrated diplomacy and civic honesty with deftness and authenticity, while foregrounding the voices of the marginalized common citizen."--Edward Moran, Times Literary Supplement "He can tell a story which is both true verse and convincing narrative. The most remarkable of his accomplishments is a reworking of the Hamlet myth into a weird, medieval version which evokes the darkest principles of human nature. But the other poems disclose an earnest, searching power of mine that is one of the rarest virtues of modern writing."-- The Minnesota Review, Hyam Plutzik's poems have haunted me for twenty-five years. And they seem even more alive and special now than they did when I first found them. He has a kinship with Isaac Bashevis Singer, drawing his strengths in a similar way, directly and openly, from that ancient tradition, yet engaging the modern world as a stripped soul-with a point-blank, wholehearted simplicity of voice. His visions are authentic and piercing, and the song in them is strange-dense and harrowing, with unforgettable tones. The best of his work seems to me marvelously achieved, a sacred book., "Hyam Plutzik's poems have haunted me for twenty-five years. And they seem even more alive and special now than they did when I first found them. He has a kinship with Isaac Bashevis Singer, drawing his strengths in a similar way, directly and openly, from that ancient tradition, yet engaging the modern world as a stripped soulÑwith a point-blank, wholehearted simplicity of voice. His visions are authentic and piercing, and the song in them is strangeÑdense and harrowing, with unforgettable tones. The best of his work seems to me marvelously achieved, a sacred book."ÑTed Hughes, Hyam Plutzik: The Collected Poems, "Hyam Plutzik's poems have haunted me for twenty-five years. And they seem even more alive and special now than they did when I first found them. He has a kinship with Isaac Bashevis Singer, drawing his strengths in a similar way, directly and openly, from that ancient tradition, yet engaging the modern world as a stripped soul--with a point-blank, wholehearted simplicity of voice. His visions are authentic and piercing, and the song in them is strange--dense and harrowing, with unforgettable tones. The best of his work seems to me marvelously achieved, a sacred book."--Ted Hughes, Hyam Plutzik: The Collected Poems, "Hyam Plutzik's poems have haunted me for twenty-five years. And they seem even more alive and special now than they did when I first found them. He has a kinship with Isaac Bashevis Singer, drawing his strengths in a similar way, directly and openly, from that ancient tradition, yet engaging the modern world as a stripped soul-with a point-blank, wholehearted simplicity of voice. His visions are authentic and piercing, and the song in them is strange-dense and harrowing, with unforgettable tones. The best of his work seems to me marvelously achieved, a sacred book."-Ted Hughes, Hyam Plutzik: The Collected Poems