{"product_id":"9780990925798","title":"Babushka's Beads: New and Selected Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003eElisavietta Ritchie is a woman who has really lived and this verbal rumination on her heritage, the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epeople she has loved, the family recipes for borscht or cherry vodka or bread\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eare filled with such exquisite, well-realized detail, a reader is drawn along with\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe force of a rip tide on a summer afternoon at the beach. It’s all simply so interesting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd her conversations with the past and recently dead intrigue us: “It\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etolls for thee,” they remind us, and yes, we all do eventually get out alive according\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto this wise woman when it comes our time to ponder the great mystery of death.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRussia’s nostalgia for its glorious past – its literature, art, dance, theatre could\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enot be extinguished in a century of Communist revisionism. This nostalgia seems\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eworked into the very DNA of the Russian soul right down to the present day as\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe country seeks to take the world stage once again. At the root of this nostalgia\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eis the ghost of a genteel aristocracy which ended in the forest assassination\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof the Czar’s family and the Russian diaspora after the world wars that\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efollowed. As one of the world’s great cultures, it continues to shape history and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eart and in this beautiful example, poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat we have to learn from the poems of Lisa Ritchie is everything worth preserving\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand protecting in life: Love, lovers, children, cousins, parents, home, shared\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emeals, the memory of those who shaped us, the courage that won freedom, pride in\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eself and country, an abiding attachment to the beloved dead reaching to us from the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eother side of life. Here are poems that extol life, sing of its joy, despite the cruelty and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eentropy that threaten at every turn. Lisa Ritchie is a person you would want to know,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewhose poetry you have here, life seen through her bright, intelligent, compassionate\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeyes, what poetry does at its best, give heart. An old proverb has it that “it is in the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eshelter of each other that we live.” These poems give respite in a world too often in\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eneed of such shelter.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Poets Choice Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49893919686896,"sku":"9780990925798","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780990925798","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}