Benjamin Hollander

The Letters of Carla, the Letter B: A Mystery in Poetry Benjamin Hollander

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry. California Interest. A polemic, a dispute, an essai, a history of real persons in poetry, of agon and salient entanglement. An investigation, an epistle. A romp a ride, but open as conclusion. Across boundaries of time and place these ideas sing and let us serve an elusive poetic dream--Clara Bow perhaps. Like a Le Carre spymaster, this CARLA, THE LETTER B, is one of the ghosts whose imaginative skillful 'means & motives one cannot grasp, and yet she leads us on.' Wallace Stevens and Charles Olson would be delighted. Kudos to the 'forsworn author.' --Anne Waldman THE LETTERS OF CARLA, THE LETTER B: A MYSTERY IN POETRY should be read not as literary or cultural criticism but as literature. The book is a truer and bolder specimen of what has been called crítica-ficción, and it brilliantly strips naked the absurdity of contemporary interpretation. This mystery in poetry will hopefully make readers realize that a dispute based on interpretations which substitute poetics and history (what Olson would call 'the WORK') for second hand academic opinions on KULCHUR and identity is not merely pointless, but dangerous. --Ricardo Cázares Graña