What the Furies Bring

In the foreword to his new book, What the Furies Bring, acclaimed poet and essayist Kenneth Sherman asks, in the wake of 9/11, 'What help is writing to the writer? What help to the reader?' Examining the works of authors who have lived and written under great duress, Sherman suggests how writing can serve as 'equipment for living.' He contemplates Primo Levi's desire to tell his story - a yearning that kept the Holocaust survivor writing through periods of crushing depression. Sherman's insight into the ways diary writing afforded Chaim Kaplan and Anne Frank a means to keep their sanity and humanity under the most harrowing conditions will prove inspirational to readers. In The Angel of Disease, Sherman examines the curative aspects of writing by discussing authors who, though critically ill, persisted in their quest for the right word. Sherman's book is not limited to writers from our past. He captures our current situation in, Poetry and Terrorism, a prescient essay that delves into the moral and aesthetic considerations brought to the foreground since the terrorist attacks on NYC. He follows this with essays that consider whether contemporary poets and novelists have risen to the task of articulating the new age. The 'furies' in Sherman's title belong to history and what they bring is not only destruction but the opportunity to transform our art and ourselves.