Temple: From a Writer's Notebook

After Dennison ( The Lives of Children ) died from cancer in 1987, poet and translator Gardner and author and editor Stoehr, friends of Dennison, compiled this collection of his journal entries and neighbor profiles. The book is a celebration of small-town life in Temple, Maine, though most interesting here is the author's ambivalence in struggling with his relocation from New York City and his longing for his lost political and artistic life. Dennison was a writer of considerable power, with a clear eye for character and an intensity that reveals itself in staccato description and unself-conscious voice. It is unfortunate, however, that he died before he could shape these excerpts more narratively, for the descriptions and profiles as presented become repetitive. (June)