The Mercy (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Levine
- First Published: 1999
- Type of Work: Poetry
- Time of Work: The twentieth century
- Setting: Detroit, other United States locations, Italy
- Principal Characters: Esther Levine, Bernadette Strempek, Joe Gould, Clifford Brown, Federico García Lorca, Helen Garner, Sonny Rollins
- Genres: Poetry, Narrative poetry
- Subjects: Homelessness or homeless people, Voyages, Music or musicians, Art or artists, Writing, Immigration or emigration, Working class, Ships, Work or workers
- Locales: United States, Detroit, MI, Italy
These poems glisten and gleam. It is hard to imagine a working- class consciousness with its sense of injustice and the general hardness of life combined with nostalgia. Levine has produced such a combination. His is the best kind of nostalgia: a wistful examination of lives past or passing, through lenses of love, without a lot of romanticizing. The working-class concern is vintage Levine. The tone of the book is well reflected by the carefully chosen cover, which is Alfred Stieglitz’s 1907 photograph “The Steerage.” The picture shows the privation and possibility of people of...
[The entire page is 1878 words long]
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