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Cross Roads

Bert Schierbeek
Translated by Charles McGeehan
Introduced by Yahn Lovelock
Illustrations by Karen Hargreaves-Fitzsimmons 		As Yahn Lovelock notes in his introduction, were it not for the fact that his language is Dutch, Bert Schierbeek would have been noticed a generation ago. With this translation of Betrekkingen, the second volume of Schierbeek's latest trilogy, the English-speaking audience is introduced to this literary pioneer.
Schierbeek found his true voice in the 1950s, when he began writing his "compositional novels" — energy constructs of shifting inspirational and information streams. In them, Schierbeek's theoretical point of departure is that a life-like presentation of the facts in fiction is, itself, fiction.
Schierbeek identifies the barriers we erect and the consequent ignorance they bring. In Cross Roads, he concentrates on overcoming these barriers through his theme of personal independence. The dominant image is the new sense of richness Eulalia gains from being taught to read.		 "For outsiders like me, who have sometimes managed a glimpse of contemporary Dutch poetry, Schierbeek has long appeared as the dominant figure, energetic and graceful over forty tears or more. This poem-novel goes beyond anything we've seen, to place him among the masters of an art that breaks distinctions between genres."
— Jerome Rothenberg
 
Published by Katydid Books
Distributed by Wayne State University Press

$17.95s paper / ISBN 0-942668-11-1

180 pages

1988 (Dutch edition 1979)