Our Like Will Not Be There Aga

While reading this book, I felt so inauthentic. I wanted to stomp in the mud and sweat in my clothes. I wanted to be poor and desperate. But I did not want to get drunk because I know how I will feel the next day. But who am I kidding? And whom? There is no going back to simpler times, at least not as a whole lifestyle. Millman did make the lives of these crude yet wise Irish poets so noble that I kept thinking that theirs was the true human condition. I am not sure if it was due to the good translations or to the framing of the poems and snippets, but they sounded wonderful. I kept regretting that I don't know Irish so that I could hear the originals. Those of you of Irish ancestry will, of course, have no trouble with the original language. I hope that someone has audio-taped and video-taped the old people who recited the poems, but then I realized that this is un-Buddhist, since everything is impermanent and trying to hold onto impermanence is the cause of human suffering. YMMV. One thing I could not get out of my mind was that Mr. Millman is most famous for his adventures with living with Headhunters for a year I think. This kept making me have doubts about the author's moral perspective. I am not sure if he himself collected any heads. The idea that this culture is or was overwhelmed by modern civilization, which is not all that civilized, was quite sad and always on my mind. Millman portrayed the poets and their fellow travelers and neighbors very sympathetically, which was quite lovely. Although there was not much of a plot I found it to be a page-turner. In fact I read most of it twice. There were not many full stories told by the poets, but the whole depiction of their lives was a story. A friend of mine in New York named Walter Simmons is a writer. He writes reviews of classical music CDs. A few years ago he received an E-mail from Lawrence Millman who liked Walter's reviews. They had a brief E-mail correspondence. In one of the messages Millman said that at a book-signing event in New York City only 1 person showed up. That was very discouraging fact since I think Millman is one of our great living authors and ethnographers.

This book shoud be back in print. It is a wonderful piece of first rate journalism. The folks come alive and Millman as always shows the Human Side. For the gent who posted the other review, if you want a copy of the book again go to ABE or Advance Book Exchange!

Although the world ended long ago, Millman takes you through some fascinating fragments. Poignant, vivid, engrossing. It's a great book. I only wish I hadn't lent mine before it went out of print.