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    Romanian Suite
    Romanian Suite
    Romanian Suite
    Ebook69 pages20 minutes

    Romanian Suite

    By Kenneth Radu

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    About this ebook

    In linked poems of great individual power, Kenneth Radu addresses the matter of Romania, the country of his ancestors, summoning figures from myth, distant and recent history, and the arts. The cast of characters includes Dracula, Prince Vlad the Impaler, and the devil -- all related to Ceausescu himself -- as well as an immigrant and his wife, and the great Romanian pianists Dinu Lipatti and Radu Lupu, and a bride who courageously battles the devil for control of her wedding. These interweave with a narrator in the present -- a gardener-pianist -- to create a long poem that is both an exorcism and a celebration, an enactment of the human capacity to survive and regenerate spiritually.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrick Books
    Release dateSep 15, 1996
    ISBN9781771311502
    Romanian Suite
    Author

    Kenneth Radu

    KENNETH RADU is the author of three story collections, four novels and three volumes of poetry. The acclaimed Flesh and Blood is his most recent novel. His story collection The Cost of Living was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and Radu is a two-time winner of the QSPELL Prize for Fiction, for A Private Performance and Distant Relations.

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      Book preview

      Romanian Suite - Kenneth Radu

      Romanian Suite

      KENNETH RADU

      Romanian Suite

      Brick Books

      CANADIAN CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

      Radu, Kenneth

         Romanian suite

      Poems.

      ISBN 0-919626-89-0

      1. Title.

      PS8585A29R66 1996 c811′.54 C96-931512-0

      PR9199.3.R33R66 1996

      Copyright © Kenneth Radu, 1996.

      The support of the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts

      Council is gratefully acknowledged.

      The cover photograph was taken in Bucharest by Joshua Radu.

      Brick Books

      www.brickbooks.ca

      Box 20081

      431 Boler Road

      London, Ontario

      N6K 4G6

      Canada

      Acknowledgments

      I am grateful to my editor Don McKay for his inestimable help in unearthing the true poems, and to my son Joshua whose visit to Romania and pictures of Bucharest were instrumental in the creation of Romanian Suite. As always, my wife Diane has been a source of inexhaustible encouragement and technical assistance.

      A few of the poems from the 'Tales from the Crypt' section originally appeared in The Fiddlehead.

      For my brothers and sisters,

      George, Elaine, Connie, Marie and John:

      in time of need, no distance at all.

      Contents

      I - Tales from the crypt

      The Gardener

      Romanian Creation Myth

      Prince Vlad

      Dracula

      The Immigrant

      Heritage

      The Palace

      The Immigrant's Wife

      The Nurse's Lullaby

      The Nurse's Tale

      The Resurrection

      The Uprising

      a white cloud

      II - would have been

      i: dinu lipatti

      ii: I dream of desert places

      III - The crazy bride

      IV - The Gardener Attends a Piano Recital at Place des Arts

      V - Feasting at the table

      I

      Tales from the Crypt

      The Gardener

      My grandfather sat outside

      under a white moon, dust ringing

      his eyes and locust larvae glowing

      in the devastated fields.

      He played the

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