101 Books, Number 16

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

 

my copy from college days

16: Idiots First, 1963, by Bernard Malamud (1914–1986)

I met his work in college days*—

An English class in modern lit**—

I couldn’t get enough of it—

These newest books set me ablaze.

I’d never read such works as these—

His stories—all so tense and and tight.

I later read all in my sight—

His writing showed such expertise.

I later learned by accident

That he lies now not far away

From talents from a former day.***

Like them, such worlds he could invent.

His voice was true—his words had flow.

And on his literary ship

I joined him and commenced the trip

To sail to worlds I didn’t know.

*Hiram College, mid-1960s

**Dr. Abe C. Ravitiz, American Thought III

***Longfellow and O. W. Holmes are in the same cemetery