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Title: Worth a Detour
Review: A fascinating view of the literary world as seen by a leading Russian emigre poet. Some of the essays (like the long dissection of an elegy by Marina Tsvetaeva) are so dense as to be almost unreadable. The equally long dissection of "September 1, 1939" by Auden,though, is like auditing a brilliant university lecture on contemporary British poetry. The paeans to Leningrad and to Brodsky's parents give a gritty feel of life in Soviet Russia. The book gives unexpected rewards, and is worth perseverin
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