The Burning of the Books and Other Poems

by George Szirtes

The title-poem of George Szirtes' The Burning of the Books and Other Poems is the core of this collection of narrative sequences by a writer who came to Britain as a child refugee after the Hungarian Uprising. Book burning is often associated with the Nazis' actions in 1933, but the practice has a long history, right down to our own day. In this particular case the burning refers to the library of Kien, the scholar in Elias Canetti's novel Auto da F. The poems follow and expand from the events of Canetti's book in a variety of forms not previously used by Szirtes.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2010

About the author

George Szirtes was born in Budapest in 1948 and came to England as a refugee in 1956. He was brought up in London and studied Fine Art in London and Leeds. His poems began appearing in national magazines in 1973 and his first book, The Slant Door, was published in 1979. It won the Faber Memorial prize the following year.

By this time he was married with two children. After the publication of his second book, November and May, 1982, he was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Since then he has published several books and won various other prizes including the T S Eliot Prize for Reel in 2005.

Having returned to his birthplace, Budapest, for the first time in 1984, he has also worked extensively as a translator of poems, novels, plays and essays and has won various prizes and awards in this sphere. His own work has been translated into numerous languages.

Beside his work in poetry and translation he has written Exercise of Power, a study of the artist Ana Maria Pacheco, and, together with Penelope Lively, edited New Writing 10 published by Picador in 2001.

George Szirtes lives near Norwich with his wife, the painter Clarissa Upchurch. Together they ran The Starwheel Press. Corvina has recently produced Budapest: Image, Poem, Film, their collaboration in poetry and visual work.

Reviews

[Atticus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll leave this ending of one of the poems contained here to justify my rating.

"The Translators"

4

How do I know myself before I have created
my simulacrum? How are the hungry
to be fed? Listen, the sky is angry.
The Gods are demanding to be translated.

Displaying a supreme talent with modernized rhyme across a bevy of topics with depth and without clumsiness, The Burning of the Books has instantly shot Szirtes into being one of my favorite living poets.

[Judi Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is poetry which deals with Communist Mitteleurope through the eyes of someone now living in Britain. The poet's concerns are those of an exile, giving a mournful quality. And yet, Szirtes's facility with the English language (which is not, obviously, his first language) and poetical construction (he is skilled in a plethora of forms), not to mention a fatalistic outlook that finds humour in the darkest of places make these poems both unusual and unusually probing of his subject matter.

I find his rhymes are always a delight - and he delights in rhyme.