R A L P H The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities Number 105 Mid-Fall 2003 |
NEW LISTINGS
Strange Facts of Life,
Growing up in New York City, and
Growing up in the Worst Family Possible
REVIEWS
New Directions Anthology of
Great Reviews of the Past
BRIEF REVIEWS
LETTERS READINGS
The Return of the Time Machine
Young Love
POETRY
delivery THE OFFICIAL RALPH
GENERAL INDEX
A PITHY SAMPLE
SUBSCRIBE
My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance
"Anyone who can bring off this
silver-threads-among-the-gold
high-passion throb act should have us hanging
on her every word. The bonus is
her mastery of simple, good, funny writing."The History of the Oxford English Dictionary
"The last word in the dictionary?
I thought you'd never ask:
zyxt.
A Kentish word, past participle of the verb
to see. Is it possible that there are
people out there who do Scrabble
using only the OED?"
Classical Chinese Poetry
"The best translators,
as Williams points out,
and this anthology proves,
must brush aside
purely grammatical conformations
by creating a new language."
Learning to Fall
"Suffering is all about us ---
always has been, always will be.
What you and I do with it is certainly
important to us and those around us ---
but, in the long run, it makes no difference.
Because suffering (no matter how ghastly)
is just another part of the dance."
Chinese Ceramics,
San Diego, Texas, 1900,
California Labor Art, and
The Complete Pebble Mosaic Handbook
The Devil's Brew,
Larry, Moe and Curley,
The California Governor's Race, and
RALPH Violates Federal Copyright Law
Ticks, Blackflies, and God's Other Punishments
"What designing genius fashioned the mosquito?
Who decided that it needed seven mouth parts ---
no more, no less --- to grip and drill and pump and suck?
And who developed the tag-team format whereby,
just as the mosquitoes tire in July,
the deerflies arrive to burrow through
our sun-warmed hair and chew our scalps?"
" I turned and saw that
I had grasped the antenna of another monster crab
that stood just behind me.
Its evil eyes were wriggling on their stalks,
its mouth was all alive with appetite,
and its vast ungainly claws,
smeared with an algal slime
were descending upon me."
"The day Rosie Burdock decided to
take me in hand
was a motionless day of summer,
creamy, hazy and amber-coloured,
with the beech trees standing
in heavy sunlight
as though clogged with wild honey."
Post Op
"A-tisket, a-tasket
I'm out of my casket
Into my hospital room
With a view of Riverside Drive
Where the snow is a feathery shawl
My children plump as chestnuts by the fire..."
"my baby / pushing off
with his black / feet
from the dark / shore, heading
out, not / knowing
which way and trusting, / oarless and eyeless, so
hopeless / it didn't matter."
Paradox-of-the-Month
A complete list of all books reviewed in RALPH,
arranged by title, including author, subject, and publisher,
plus a listing of all readings, articles and poems
that have appeared since 1994.
of our most notorious reviews
as collected in the hard-copy
"FOLIO"
Help perpetuate honest, noisy, pesky book reviews.
With your $25 subscription, you get
a free copy of one or more of the titles from
Mho & Mho Works
Submitting Books The best way to get books to RALPH for review. Submitting Reviews Suggestions for would-be reviewers --- and payment schedule. History RALPH didn't spring full-blown from the brows of the gods: We've been around (in different guises) for over thirty years. The Fessenden Fund Describing the good works of RALPH's official godparent |
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