Workout for the question mark: “One Nation Taken Out of Another” reviewed

“The title of the book, One Nation Taken Out of Another, really comes in the form of a question, and this highlights a significant stylistic aspect of Berger’s poems. The question mark gets a heavy workout in these pages. Whether it’s in dialogue (“Vos iz mitn goyish? I say. What’s with the goyish? Speak Yiddish like we do at home.”), the poet speaking to one of his characters (“Nachshon, need a shower?/Nachshon, foxy fish down there, huh?/Nachshon, one small step for man?” – “Hagode shel Peysekh”), a riddle asked of himself or the reader (“How do you English a Yiddish nation?”), the effect is to put the reader on the spot, get him/her involved.”

A nice review, by Charles Rammelkamp, here.