Readings - Softcover

"To read Birkerts is to hear (and enjoy hearing) the voice of literary conscience." --Seamus Heaney "Expansive and eclectic and laserous and lucid and impassioned and heartlessly smart. Birkerts is the most interesting and persuasive critic in the U.S. today." --David Foster Wallace "Whether he is meditating on the new media technology, discussing his own failings, decrying post-modernism, or simply critiquing a new novel, Birkerts is a joy to read. The sincerity of his ideas shines through on every page, and his self-effacing candor is a refreshing change from the ironic critical stances that seem to dominate these days . . . Whether or not you agree with Birkerts's positions, you will find yourself ruminating on his themes long after you have finished reading." --Booklist "Some of the most finely wrought, and deeply considered, criticism being written today." --Publishers Weekly

Combining the best of Sven Birkert's dazzling literary criticism with vital new essays. Here is Birkerts the literary critic in top form, discussing authors ranging from Elizabeth Bishop to Don DeLillo and topics ranging from biography to the enigma of poetic inspiration. A brilliant cultural commentator, Birkerts also offers important insights into contemporary nostalgia, our modern sense of time and the future of the creative spirit.