Pieces of My Mind : Essays and Criticism 1958-2002

Rating:
Summary: life/style
Review: It's beautifully fitting that this collection of Kermode's essays begins with "Poet and Dancer Before Diaghilev." Kermode moves with balletic grace and alacrity through subjects ranging from Parisian salon culture of the '20s to Don DeLillo, often using the written word (Yeats, Stevens) as a point of departure for further critical and cultural adventuring. Pieces of My Mind is a pure pleasure from start to finish -- a generous testament to Sir Kermode's love and wonder for many, many things.

Rating:
Summary: Fresh, sharp, at ease
Review: Kermode's collection of essays demonstrates a brilliant mind scanning the diverse subjects to which it was led by curiosity and passion. As a literary critic, Kermode is an exemplar of the creative possibilities of theory-- rather than operating in one single mode, he adopts freely as he sees fit from a range of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives. These essays prove the value in a commitment to following personal interests rather than fashionable academic mandates and to wearing critical perspectives as a mask: for the sake of entertainment, flashes of enlightenment, and personal freedom. With a passion for literature, and for thinking about literature's bearing upon itself, Kermode writes beautifully and clearly. He carries literature beyond its own formal bounds, without subordinating it to 'larger', 'more serious' concerns (such as Philosophy, Politics or History) though acknowleding its interactions with these disciplines. More specifically, Kermode shows a consistent concern with hermeneutics and narrative as code, returning again and again to an interest in the New Testament that appears even before his well-known "The Genesis of Secrecy".