Four Days in Algeria

PEN / REGINALD LOCKETT LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN LITERATURE * PRIZE-WINNING NOVELIST, POET, AND PAINTER * GEORGIA WRITER'S HALL OF FAME


"A world traveler's notebook of gentle, affable observations."-The New York Times Book Review * "A remarkable mind and the talent to match."-Toni Morrison, Nobel-prize winning author * "A very powerful book!"-Cornelius Eady * "Radiant with attentiveness and loving compassion"-Rikki Ducornet * "A feast to be reckoned with."-Allison Joseph * "A new book by Major is a literary event."-John Beckman * "For forty-five years Major has been on the cutting edge of literature."-Richard Price * "Major is an essential American writer."-Steve Yarbrough


Clarence Major's Four Days in Algeria is a poetic feast of travel, taking us to Paris, Florence, Ghana, Algeria, and many other places. We also experience the seasons in fresh ways. Delicious food, too, is laid before us. There are quiet moments, as on a houseboat, where the poet is writing poetry. Major gives us adventurous encounters with ordinary life rendered through poems of dazzling agility and fearless bluntness. These are also poems of unfettered Augustan honesty. They radiate with lyrical purity. Allegorical and spontaneous, they are full of holiday energy as the poet passionately affirms life, whether as he travels or simply in quiet moments of reflection.