Poetry. In the epitaph of his newest book, IN A STONE'S HOLLOW, South African native Freddy Frankel quotes the notebook he kept while enlisted in WWII in 1945, "my dream is to will down the firmament, place in every human soul a star where vengeance lurks." The poetry in this collection gives testament to this dream, giving the reader both an intensely intimate poetic experience and an important historical account of a young South African recruit. Frankel weaves tenderness with cruelty, politics with emotion, beauty with war, utilizing his exquisite technical mastery of language. Divided into three parts [Notes on a War, Hottentot Venus: Poems of Apartheid, and Bound Close on the Naked Vine] the collection comes together as a poignant act, turning the vengeance of war into a star, a beacon of hope for humanity. "The language is spare and under control and has a genuine immediacy...The poems never preach but are lined out with a cool and therefore devastating effect"--Vern Rutsala. Read Less