Crystals in a shock wave - The works of /Albert Russo/ et son oeuvre

The works of Albert Russo of the past 40 years, in both English and French, reviewed and commented in these two languages, with essays and photos by the author. excerpt of James Baldwin's letter: Dear Albert Russo: l've read everything you sent me, and I like your work very much indeed. It has a very gentle surface and a savage under-tow - the fiction - and I applaud the wicked portrait of Ionesco. You're a dangerous man. My friend, the Black woman novelist, Toni Morrison, knows what you are talking about. l'm in Paris on the 24th of this month and hope to see you. all the best, James Baldwin. ALBERT RUSSO. PAINTING THE TOWER OF BABEL. Hyde (Cheshire). New Hope International (UK) - in World Literature Today (USA) Albert Russo's poetry deserves to be put before us in this handy and attractive format. Each word is in its place, no other word would do, and extracting component strings of words by themselves do not constitute poetry to the extent they do within their completed whole, rather like jewels without settings. Yet there is nothing esoteric about his verse. To the contrary, simplicity rules, and accessibility is immediate, although successive readings do disclose certain cunning and bemused conceits invisible at first. As proof, I can only quote one exemplary poem in its entirety, Expectancy. there's a world at peace and there's a world at war the frontiers between the two shift and overlap like waves over the breakers at low tide and as you watch the evening news you feel your heart skitter across the water on the safe side or so you will yourself to believe but when in the dead of night you switch off the bedlamp the rumblings under your skin at first distant and familiar start sending out portentous signals then somewhere around the solar plexus there's an expectancy of pain searing as the alarm caused by misfired thunder it shoots through the arteries to the cortex making the flesh quiver in its wake and suddenly the echo of a reverberating crackle turns your entire body into an electric web so tightly packed you instinctively embrace all the destructive power of mankind's folly This poem is not typical, since none of Russo's are. His poems manifest a vast capacity for experimentation in form and subject, surely a signpost of a poet still busily a-growing. Highly recommended. L'oeuvre d'Albert Russo sur 40 ans, recensée en français et en anglais, avec ses propres essais, et ses photos. James Baldwin: "J'aime votre écriture, car dans un style policé vous exprimez des sentiments violents, faisant éclater des vérités terrifiantes, Vous dérangez sans en avoir l'air." "La nostalgie de l'enfance décrite par un grand écrivain: Albert Russo. Retenez bien ce nom. On en reparlera." Jean-Claude Bourret, critique littéraire "Je ne peux résister au plaisir de vous féliciter. Tout cela est excellent. J'ai beaucoup aimé vos poèmes." Robert Goffin, de l'Académie Royale de Belgique. "Il y a là une façon de conter qui va comme une rivière souterraine qui affleurerait de temps en temps pour replonger aussitôt. Pensée allusive, langue souvent trop chargée (comme cette nature tropicale dont vous parlez si bien), mots et images parfois maniérés, tout cela contribue à créer un climat chaud et blessé, un climat troublant. On ne l'oublie pas... dès les premières pages, on sent un ton nouveau auquel on ne peut rester indifférent." Paul Willems, écrivain, poète et Directeur du Musée des Beaux-Arts (Bruxelles) "Je viens de lire les deux volumes que vous m'avez envoyés et leur ton m'a beaucoup touché" Joseph Kessel, de l'Académie Française. "Pierre Emmanuel (de l'Académie Française) tient à vous dire le plaisir qu'il a eu à lire ces pages à la fois difficiles, sensuelles et pleines d'humour." "Le message humain, c'est cela le 'fétiche' qui fait vibrer les ouvrages d'Albert Russo. Une oeuvre retentissante." La Dépêche de Lubumba