A Thickness of Particulars

Reviews / Votes

Jonathan S.F. Post approaches Anthony Hecht's varied oeuvre with a combination of meticulousness and vision. A scholarly humility, paired with a willingness to venture broader claims about Hecht's poetic evolution, makes A Thickness of Particulars not just essential criticism of Hecht's work (not to mention the first comprehensive study), but an elegant illustration of how careful close readings are not just compatible with -- but are indispensable to -- acts of interpretive imagination. * Emily Leithauser, Literary Matters * This is the first book-length study by a single author to consider the full range of Hecht's production... The author is undoubtedly the person best suited to the task ... The chapter centered on [Hecht's "Venetian Vespers"], and on the eponymous volume that contained it, is perhaps the richest in the book. It is certainly the most detailed and penetrating account of Hecht's narrative poem that I have read, and it is a poem that has garnered a good deal of critical attention over the years... Post succeeds in making the case that it is no exaggeration to talk of a "Shakespearean stamp" when discussing Hecht's greatest poetry. And I think it fair to say that we can talk of a Hechtian stamp on his own book; this is clearly a study by a critic who feels a profound sympathy with his subject, and who often seems endowed with Hecht's own power to illuminate even when exploring the darkest events of human history. * Gregory Dowling, Modern Philology * Throughout the book, Posts erudite and scholarly analysis of Hechts considerable corpus illuminates the formal power, moral depth, and intellectual brilliance of this important American poet. * Adrienne Leavy, First Things *