review_Moyayama

from A Small Garlic Press's website

What makes this book amazing is the freshness and concision of its insights -- given that the author wrote it first in his native Russian before translating it into English -- yet Alexey has been an English-speaker for only two years and a smile.

The book is a diary; it follows a strict time flow, starting in Russia, arriving in New York, going on to witness Chicago and other cities, through a noticing foreigner's eyes.

Moyayama translates from Russian to roughly "my ditch" (or: my-niche), yes, run together like that. It consists of various Japanese poetry forms strung together and divided into sections by its context-dividing artwork. Of the forms, haiku and haibun predominate. What are haibun? Haibun comprise short pieces of prose displayed together with haiku -- as a thematic unit. The layout of the book makes it clear what goes with what.

The 44-page work(the original English version whitch was published by ASGP) contains many stand-alone haiku, haibun, senryu and tanka: quite a browsing feast for those interested in Japanese poetic styles. More interesting still is how it all reads together -- exactly like a diary, only sparse, quick, changing in slivers of narrative and sharp digs of feeling.

This is a most unusual book -- fun to read -- a good way to review one's take on America -- and an intimate way to get into Alexey's head.

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	from A Small Garlic Press's website What makes this book amazing is the freshness and concision of its insights -- given that the author wrote it first in his native Russian before translating it into English -- yet Alexey has been an English-speaker for only two years and a smile. The book is a diary; it follows a strict time flow, starting in Russia, arriving in New York, going on to witness Chicago and other cities, through a noticing foreigner's eyes. Moyayama translates from Russian to roughly "my ditch" (or: my-niche), yes, run together like that. It consists of various Japanese poetry forms strung together and divided into sections by its context-dividing artwork. Of the forms, haiku and haibun predominate. What are haibun? Haibun comprise short pieces of prose displayed together with haiku -- as a thematic unit. The layout of the book makes it clear what goes with what. The 44-page work(the original English version whitch was published by ASGP) contains many stand-alone haiku, haibun, senryu and tanka: quite a browsing feast for those interested in Japanese poetic styles. More interesting still is how it all reads together -- exactly like a diary, only sparse, quick, changing in slivers of narrative and sharp digs of feeling. This is a most unusual book -- fun to read -- a good way to review one's take on America -- and an intimate way to get into Alexey's head. Back