Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces

Wislawa Szymborska's poems are admired around the world, and her unsparing vision, tireless wit, and deep sense of humanity are cherished by countless readers. Unknown to most of them, however, Szymborska also worked for several decades as a columnist, reviewing a wide variety of books under the unassuming title "Nonrequired Reading."
As readers of her poems would expect, the short prose pieces collected here are anything but ordinary. Reflecting the author's own eclectic tastes and interests, the pretexts for these ruminations range from books on wallpapering, cooking, gardening, and yoga, to more lofty volumes on opera and world literature. Unpretentious yet incisive, these charming pieces are on a par with Szymborska's finest lyrics, tackling the same large and small questions with a wonderful curiosity.


Author: Wislawa Szymborska
Publisher: Ecco Press
Published: 10/28/2002
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.70w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780151006601


Award: Literary Award - Nominee


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 06/01/2002 pg. 118
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2002 pg. 1207
Publishers Weekly 09/23/2002 pg. 69
New York Times 10/20/2002 pg. 24
Library Journal 11/01/2002 pg. 91
Booklist 10/15/2002 pg. 364

About the Author
Cavanagh, Clare: -

CLARE CAVANAGH, professor of Slavic and comparative literature at Northwestern, has received a PEN Translation Award for her work, with Stanislaw Baranczak, on Szymborska's poetry.

Szymborska, Wislawa: -

WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA (1923-2012) was born in Poland and worked as a poetry editor, translator, and columnist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Her books include Monologue of a Dog, Map: Collected and Last Poems, and Poems New and Collected: 1957-1997.