BOOKS
his soul. (My grandmother pressed a gingko leaf
between the appropriate pages of his
Gesammelte Werke).
.. .
Look closely at this leaf: Lao-tzu's eyes
must have rested upon its identical twin, Alexander's troops
(joking ribald at the sexual smells of their far-away women)
must have smelled that fruity stench and eaten those ova l pits.
Ginkgo biloba:
found "missing link between flowering plants
and ferns" : survival is the ultimate virtue.
161
Ginkgo
will be as good to read in ten or twenty years as it is today.
Certain continuities remain. It seems particularly appropriate in the
context of Pollak's work
to
remember Goethe's civilized opinion: "One
ought, every day at least,
to
hear a little song, read a good poem, see a
fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."
A
1="ather
Is
Dyin~
Jack
L
Stoll
ALICIA OSTRIKER
..
For
speciafizeJ
co{(ecticms
oJ
cOtlCCmp,m:ff8 fiction.
,I
Li6rar8 Journa(
"The
fase
worJ
in
war
novels."
:Mark ·'Raneg
"A
superb
first
nove{"
1v\
ichae(
Larg
New eAReD 600ks
5SStMarksPIace NVC
paper: $3.95
doth:
$7.95
,,,J"3
