The works of Albert Russo of the past 40 years, in both English and French, reviewed and commented in these two languages, with essays and photos by the author. excerpt of James Baldwin's letter: Dear Albert Russo: l've read everything you sent me, and I like your work very much indeed. It has a very gentle surface and a savage under-tow - the fiction - and I applaud the wicked portrait of Ionesco. You're a dangerous man. My friend, the Black woman novelist, Toni Morrison, knows what you are talking about. l'm in Paris on the 24th of this month and hope to see you. all the best, James Baldwin. ALBERT RUSSO. PAINTING THE TOWER OF BABEL. Hyde (Cheshire). New Hope International (UK) - in World Literature Today (USA) Albert Russo's poetry deserves to be put before us in this handy and attractive format. Each word is in its place, no other word would do, and extracting component strings of words by themselves do not constitute poetry to the extent they do within their completed whole, rather like jewels without settings. Yet there is nothing esoteric about his verse. To the contrary, simplicity rules, and accessibility is immediate, although successive readings do disclose certain cunning and bemused conceits invisible at first. As proof, I can only quote one exemplary poem in its entirety, Expectancy. there's a world at peace and there's a world at war the frontiers between the two shift and overlap like waves over the breakers at low tide and as you watch the evening news you feel your heart skitter across the water on the safe side or so you will yourself to believe but when in the dead of night you switch off the bedlamp the rumblings under your skin at first distant and familiar start sending out portentous signals then somewhere around the solar plexus there's an expectancy of pain searing as the alarm caused by misfired thunder it shoots through the arteries to the cortex making the flesh quiver in its wake and suddenly the echo of a reverberating crackle turns your entire body into an electric web so tightly packed you instinctively embrace all the destructive power of mankind's folly This poem is not typical, since none of Russo's are. His poems manifest a vast capacity for experimentation in form and subject, surely a signpost of a poet still busily a-growing. Highly recommended. L'oeuvre d'Albert Russo sur 40 ans, recensee en francais et en anglais, avec ses propres essais, et ses photos. James Baldwin: "J'aime votre ecriture, car dans un style police vous exprimez des sentiments violents, faisant eclater des verites terrifiantes, Vous derangez sans en avoir l'air." "La nostalgie de l'enfance decrite par un grand ecrivain: Albert Russo. Retenez bien ce nom. On en reparlera." Jean-Claude Bourret, critique litteraire "Je ne peux resister au plaisir de vous feliciter. Tout cela est excellent. J'ai beaucoup aime vos poemes." Robert Goffin, de l'Academie Royale de Belgique. "Il y a la une facon de conter qui va comme une riviere souterraine qui affleurerait de temps en temps pour replonger aussitot. Pensee allusive, langue souvent trop chargee (comme cette nature tropicale dont vous parlez si bien), mots et images parfois manieres, tout cela contribue a creer un climat chaud et blesse, un climat troublant. On ne l'oublie pas... des les premieres pages, on sent un ton nouveau auquel on ne peut rester indifferent." Paul Willems, ecrivain, poete et Directeur du Musee des Beaux-Arts (Bruxelles) "Je viens de lire les deux volumes que vous m'avez envoyes et leur ton m'a beaucoup touche" Joseph Kessel, de l'Academie Francaise. "Pierre Emmanuel (de l'Academie Francaise) tient a vous dire le plaisir qu'il a eu a lire ces pages a la fois difficiles, sensuelles et pleines d'humour." "Le message humain, c'est cela le 'fetiche' qui fait vibrer les ouvrages d'Albert Russo. Une oeuvre retentissante." La Depeche de Lu"