Star City

"John Gallas's new collection is two books in one. The Coalville Divan makes miniature movies from the wisdom of the Persian sages. Each of the hundred sonnets returns a proverb to the particular lives, moments and places that made it. These little narratives put Life back up there with its Meaning." "Excellent Men, the second book, takes a different route to Star City. Fellini is followed by the Unknown Soldier, Alfred Schnittke can almost touch the muezzin who was a tape recorder, and William Bees VC is three steps away from a Mongolian marmot-killer. Here are the lit-up males of a writer's heart, claimed by admiration, kinship, amazement, love, poetry and a good laugh."--Jacket.