May 21st, 2010

In To Join the Lost, a latter-day rendition of Dante’s Inferno, Seth Steinzor has created a magnum opus presenting contemporary sinners and sins analogous to those in Dante but terrifyingly modern.  The book, first in a series of three that will update The Divine Comedy for the 21st Century reader, offers graphic depictions of the Nine Circles of Hell with gusto, indignation, immediacy, and not infrequent humor, clearly defining and excoriating the follies and excesses of the modern world.  Along the way, Steinzor engages in a many-layered dialogue with Dante, his guide, centered upon how much has changed in seven hundred years, and how little.

Here’s a letter praising the book from Prof. Regina Psaki of the Romance Languages Department at the University of Oregon.  If that’s not enough to get you to go here, try these:

Read the Seven Days review of To Join the Lost

Read the review at Dwell in Possibility (11/4/11)

Read The Whimsical Cottage review (11/1/11)

Read the review in Savvy Verse And Wit (11/3/11)

Read the review at Necromancy Never Pays (11/7/11)

Read Eclectic/Eccentric‘s review (11/10/11)

Here’s What She Read (11/11/11)

Read The Babel Blog’s review (11/14/11)

Poet Hound‘s review has caught the scent (11/15/11)

Read the Ex Urbanis review (11/21/11)

The Indextrious Reader likes it (11/29/11)

So does Ted Lehmann (12/1/11)