I would like to mention, though, perhaps a key to understanding the reception of this work (right now, I’m reading the poems much differently than Victoria or Ray have, but I won’t get into that) is understanding the reception of Marc Chagall.

All best,
Catherine Daly
cadaly@pacbell.net

This book is filled with genuineness and earnestness. In a world of irony, standalone genuine emotions can seem inauthentic and insincere, accomplishing exactly the opposite of a poet’s intent. Kaminsky is successful in his earnestness because he juxtaposes unabashed genuineness and hope (often using large concepts and words) with humor, specific and sometimes imaginary quirky and original metaphors and/or images.

In the first poem in Kaminsky’s book, “Author’s Prayer,” and the one mentioned by McDaniel, for example, Kaminsky opens the poem with an unoriginal (and grammatically incorrect) phrase: “If I speak for the dead….” The concept of speaking for the dead is hardly original and clich

I am grateful for the review of Dancing in Odessa composed by Ray McDaniel. I have been waiting for someone to shine a light through this flimsy, over-celebrated book of poems.

If it would cheer Mr. McDaniel to know he is not alone in his estimation of Kaminsky’s flaws, I was in a graduate creative writing class in which 9 out of 10 readers had a similar trouble with the shallow tropes, dancing and others. What a publicity campaign Dancing in Odessa has to live up to!

Thank you, Mr. McDaniel, for lucidly and specifically analysing the book’s failure to realize its ambitions. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Cordially,

Abe Louise Young