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Rating: 
Summary: A poetical/politcal Necronomicon for the 21st Century
Review: What can I say about this book? I find it utterly marvelous, fascinating and invigorating. I have waited with impatience for this volume since I learned of Sakolsky preparing it in the 'Surrealism in the US' issue of Race Traitor magazine.I had been in communication with members of the Surrealist group in Chicago for several years, and I was shocked when they asked me to contribute a piece to the book, which I did. Surrealism, to me, and to my comrades, is not some embalmed artistic 'ism'-it is a dynamic force, aimed at drastically changing the world through the unfettered mind's power. The book contains valuable essays and articles on manifold topics-women's rights, the necessity of the destruction of capitalism, revolutinary influences in popular culture (and it is a shame Franklin Rosemont's essays on the poetic power of Lovecraft's writings are left out), the marvelous nature of the natural world, and above all, the omnipotence of love and desire. A number of great surrealist thinkers and poets contribute: Franklin and Penelope Rosemont, Philip Lamantia, Ted Joans, Rikki Ducornet, Debra Taub, Paul Garon, and many, many others. Illuminations and intriguing points can be found, literally, upon every page. The numerous illustrations also benefit the book, and contain a number of masterpieces. 'Turgid', 'boring'? The criticisms of the above 'reader' are relatively light compared to the onslaught of misinformation and slander the surrealist movement throughout history, and especially in this country has been forced to endure; a sign of the repressive, anti-poetic and miserabilist world global capitalism and co. have created. Surrealism is a vibrant, living force. It will fight on. As one of the founders of the Surrealist Movement in the US, Franklin Rosemont said, "What it remains for surrealism to do far outweighs what surrealism has done."
Rating: 
Summary: Foreplay is about it
Review: What can one say of a surrealist anthology that is more boring than illuminating, and more turgid than exhilerating? What can one say of a surrealist group that allows the publication of an anthology that, in presenting an astonishing range of subjects, also reveals an imponderable superficiality in doing so, save in several brilliant texts sometimes written by creators who have only marginal affiliations with that group, have broken completely with them, or who are no longer surrealist? Rhetorical enthusiasms and historical justifications aside -- although they are difficult to place aside in this book as they appear again and again, ad nauseum -- a reader will have to search to find keys that inspire. So good luck, reader; but remember this: the weight of this volume may prevent you from carrying it with you when awake or asleep.
Rating:
Summary: Foreplay is about it
Review: What can one say of a surrealist anthology that is more boring than illuminating, and more turgid than exhilerating? What can one say of a surrealist group that allows the publication of an anthology that, in presenting an astonishing range of subjects, also reveals an imponderable superficiality in doing so, save in several brilliant texts sometimes written by creators who have only marginal affiliations with that group, have broken completely with them, or who are no longer surrealist? Rhetorical enthusiasms and historical justifications aside -- although they are difficult to place aside in this book as they appear again and again, ad nauseum -- a reader will have to search to find keys that inspire. So good luck, reader; but remember this: the weight of this volume may prevent you from carrying it with you when awake or asleep.
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