The Anthologist

READER RECOMMENDATION

The Anthologist is Paul Chowder, a fellow who builds poetry anthologies in hopes of including a poem or two from his own fairly sad collection; though the soup of his life has gone sour, he tells us about it interestingly, and while he’s at it, he tells us, also interestingly, a great deal about poetry. As we come to care about him more and more, we read on, mostly delighted. By the end, we realize there’s nothing “fishy” about the guy – and that we’ll be thinking about him long after we’ve closed the book. That’s something few modern authors achieve. Bravo!