Whoever looks to a new book by James Dickeys for further work in an established mode, or for mere novelty, is going to be disappointed. But those who seek instead a true widening of the horizons of meaning, coupled with a sure-handed mastery of the craft of poetry, will find this latest collection satisfying indeed.
Here is a man who matches superb gifts with a truly subtle imagination, into whose depths he is courageously traveling-pioneering-in exploratory penetrations into areas of life that are too often evaded or denied. "The Firebombing," "Slave Quarters," "The Fiend"-these poems, with the others that comprise the present volume, show a mature and original poet at his finest.
""Dickey's work is full of dramatic energy, superb observation, and honesty. He remains one of the foremost poets of his generation.""
The Virginia Kirkus' Service
""When he is at his best, as he is in ['The Firebombing'], Dickey reminds one of the fire sermons in the work of T.S. Eliot, but unlike Eliot, Dickey is offering us a way out of the agony through his own vision of memory and hope. He travels away from the fire, taking us with him.""
Sandra Hochman
"James Dickey's fourth volume, Buckdancer's Choice, establishes him as one of the most important younger poets of our time. It has a passionate quality, an intense clarity, a cleansing of the totality of being into a kind of carefully separated madness that makes it one of the remarkable books of the decade."
