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Title: Sheer Mastery
Review: Davis has long been known as a master of form and a first-rate translator--both reputations fully deserved--but this new book brings him even farther along his well-trodden path. The sharp wit and high sarcasm (as opposed to cheap cynicism) are the main reasons to buy this book, but the cultural erudition and formal wizardy are not far behind.The poem "Shopping"--in which a salesman offers up today's means of making a mess of one's life--is worth the price of the book alone. It's laugh-out-loud funny, and it indicts (without preaching) both the poet and the reader equally.Buy this book.
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