Review of Home by Hall of Fame Reviewer

Author of War Songs, Grady Harp is an artist representative, gallery owner, writer of essays and articles on figurative and all Representational art for museum catalogues and for travelling exhibitions, and an Amazon Hall of Fame Reviewer. He describes himself as being ever on the alert for the new and promising geniuses of tomorrow. So I am deeply honored that he has posted this five-star review (on Amazon and Goodreads) for Home:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home Defined, September 19, 2012

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Home (Paperback)

This is the second work by Uvi Poznansky that this reader has had the pleasure to absorb. And as written before in a small introduction to her life, the following is repeated: `Uvi Poznansky wears a coat of many colors. Originally from Israel where she studied Architecture and Town Planning then moving to the US where she studied Computer Science and became an expert in Software Engineering, Poznansky managed to combine the design elements of two studies into unique formats. And she has accomplished the same with the other side of her brain - making visual her ideas (she is an accomplished painter, drawer, and sculptor who has enjoyed exhibitions both in Israel and in California, her present base) and making words in poetry and in short stories and children's books.' And while all that was written before remains true, she has added a new facet to her art. HOME is an homage to her father, Zeev Kachel, an impressive poet who lived in Israel and during the last twenty years of his life he privately, secretly wrote poetry that has never been placed before the public until now. When Zeev Kachel died, Uvi discovered the poems and has translated them from Hebrew, publishing them here in tandem with her own poetry and short stories and embellishing them with her mystical artwork.

The theme is the concept of `home' as perceived by both father and daughter but not limited to their relationship or center of home: Uvi has been living in the USA while her father remained in Israel so there is a special tension within the works that negates space and time and yet celebrates it at the same time.

HOME by Uvi Poznansky, 2012

Sucked in by a force, I'm flying through a tunnel
The tunnel of memory that leads me back home
The past blurs my present, so my vision is double
The walls and the ceiling curve into a dome

From here I can see my home, tilting
And falling from place, all the lamps are aflame
My father's empty chair is slowly ascending
Tipped by the light, outlining its frame

And in A SENTENCE, UNFINISHED, a brief story, she includes the following:

Here is the poet, a man notorious for his contradictions, a man of great passion and an equally great skill to capture it, to put it in beautiful, eloquent words in any one of ten languages. Here is the storyteller whose listeners have left him. Locked in a world of no sound, in a world of no expression, here he is: a cage within a cage. This is the place where even the wolf surrenders. The fight is over. No more howling. ........ Here, at last, is my father.

And when we turn to the translations of the poetry of Zeev Kachel, the following is a brief example:

I'M NOT SORRY
I'm not sorry for the hours that I wasted
Suspended in my dreams and idle thought
I'm not sorry for the days I ruined
The only thing I care about is the luster I did blot

I care that that's the way our lives are going
In power games, for which we'll pay the price,
I ache, because of our misunderstanding
Because that which is between us turned hard as ice

I care nothing for the roses that have withered
Over their fleeting fragrance I will shed no tears
What pains me now is the way I hurt you
And that if I ask forgiveness, no one hears

No way to settle this, to heal the cuts
In this world there's a price for everything
The echo of our steps is the witness left behind us
As the light that glowed upon us is already blackening.

This radiant book is an exploration of the bond between a daughter and father and the book overflows with some of the most eloquent poetic moments in print. HOME is an invitation, a very personal one, and should not be passed over. Grady Harp, September 12

My Father's Work

My father Zeev Kachel, an author, poet and artist, knew many languages, and he knew them because of the trials and tribulations of his history. Born in Russia, he knew Russian, Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew from early childhood. French, German and Spanish came later: He left home at seventeen, moved to France for his studies, and upon the German invasion he was imprisoned. He escaped the camp, and climbed a foot trail over the Pyrenees mountains, which forms a massive divider between France and Spain. He lived two years in Barcelona, until he emigrated to Israel, where he fell captive when the Jordanian forces attacked the electricity plant which he operated.  

My father published three books during his lifetime: a prose book Dams Erupting published in 1957, offering a personal account of events during his captivity in Jordan during Israel’s war of independence in 1948; a poetry book Can We Still Love published in 1961, questioning our capability to give and receive love, having witnessed the inhumanity of two world wars; and a poetry book Beyond The Window, What Day Is It Today, published in 1977, bringing to light an unusual creative collaboration with me. 

How did this happen? When I was in my teens, my father said to me: Uvi, give me your poems, lets publish them. I resisted, because to me they were intensely private. He said, these poems, locked in your desk, are not yours anymore. The minute your ink left the pen, the words exist on their own. They belong to your readers! 

At last he prevailed, and a poetry book with his work and mine was published. And now after all these years, the upcoming book titled Home celebrates once again the spirit—and the action—of joining forces.

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The Carousel

When first I spot it, all seems still

But in my heart--a sudden thrill

The cables sing with a raspy sound

And into place I am now bound

Now being lifted, faster, faster

No longer of my fate a master

My mouth gaped open--but not a scream

The ground's dropping, beam under beam

A beat, then silence, then a beat

I'm nearly flying off my seat

The beating quickens in my heart

My limbs are stretching part from part

Round and round the carousel

Rise to heaven, sink to hell--

Book Review for Home: Deeply Moving

Dolores holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in psychology as well as teacher certification in Manitoba, Canada. During her teaching career Dolores furthered her education by completing her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in psychology from the University of Winnipeg. Her self-help books--It's Not Perfect and It's OK, Growing Up and Liking It, and UP THE "DOWN" LADDER--are written in retrospect based on a proven recipe, one she has incorporated step by step into her own life. So I am honored that she has just posted this review, which she titled Deeply Moving, for Home:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Moving!, September 14, 2012

By 

Dolores Ayotte (Winnipeg, Manitoba) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Home (Paperback)

"Home" by Author Uvi Poznansky is a well-written compilation of poetry and prose. She shares some of the works of her father Zeev Kachel as well as her own talent.

This is the second book that I have read and reviewed by this gifted author. It is hard to put into words the emotion one feels after reading her work. There is a great sadness found here...almost sorrowful in its content. Her writing touches my heart to the core as I sense the courage it takes to show such deep feeling and pain. Yes...the release of pain is what I hear in her words. Her artistic gift is the expression of Ms. Poznansky's experiences. Perhaps, she is vicariously living and writing through the eyes of her father and touching our lives with her unmistakeable ability to share her feelings as well as her dearly departed father's innermost self with her readers.

Ms. Poznansky does not shy away from dealing with some darker subjects nor does her father. It is apparent to me that Zeev Kachel, the author of many of the numerous poems included in "Home", suffered a great deal. His poetry shows the depth of his loneliness in his later years and the therapeutic outlet he embraced in his poetry. In doing so, he is able to release some of his pain as well as share his talent. It is obvious to me that father and daughter share a common artistic gift. Ms. Poznansky is showing so much of both their talents in this thought-provoking and touching book.

"Home" is not for the faint of heart. It is meant to reach deep inside the reader's soul and stir those raw emotions that not all can...or want to, identify with. It appears to me that Zeev Kachel suffered a great deal throughout his life as he so poetically states "Now I cry out of a burst of pain and howl in darkness out of loneliness."

Yes indeed...Ms. Poznansky has captured not only the depths of her father's despair and turned it into a masterpiece, she has shared her prose and poetry as well. Once again, she has put her artistic talent out there for all to read and see. There are no "masks" as she shares her gifts with those keen enough to feel the true essence of her efforts. I wholeheartedly agree that, "Now after all these years, "Home" celebrates once again the spirit and the action - of joining forces". Father and daughter have done just that!

A Literary Symphony

Ashley Fontainne is an avid reader of classic literature. She is also the author of Zero Balance, Accountable to None, and Ramblings of a Mad Southern Woman, and the host of a Blog talk radio show, which is dedicated to interviewing Indie writers. So I am honored that she has just posted a review of my novel on Amazon. Ashley titled her review "A Literary Symphony" which makes me happy, in part because of the presence of the white piano in the story, and the musical themes it touches on, and in part because it tells me how Apart From Love touched her heart. This is what she says:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Literary Symphony, September 14, 2012

By 

Ashley Fontainne "Ashley" (Malvern, Arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apart From Love (Kindle Edition)

Uvi Poznansky has penned a literary symphony, complete with a cast of likeable yet bruised characters.

The story unfolds as each central figure takes center stage, allowing the reader to slip inside and vicariously experience their true emotions--no matter how damaged they are.

The story centers around Ben, his father Lenny, and Anita--Lenny's new wife. The underlying currents of a myriad of emotions are woven throughout each chapter as each of them struggle to deal with their new role and place in the broken family dynamic. Although Ben is an adult, he still feels the pain of the divorce of his mother and father years ago and holds an almost religious awe of his mother in his memories of her. He also harbors deep resentment toward his father for the demise of the marriage.

Enter Anita, the vivacious, and younger, new wife of Ben's aging father--and the reason for the divorce of Ben's parents. The family unit was shattered the day Anita came into the picture, and for years, the relationship between father and son simply did not exist. However, time, space and tragedy tend to soften deep-seated anger, and Ben reunites with his father after Lenny's most recent bout in the hospital.

Upon Ben's arrival back to the home he fled years ago, the tension he feels toward Anita is immediate for a variety of real and imagined reasons. Even as an adult, Ben finds it difficult to come to terms that another woman attempting to perform the role of wife and step-mother--and the fact that he finds himself inexplicably attracted to her.

This eloquently written tale provides a look into the damage caused by infidelity and the long-term emotional scars a broken home leaves on everyone involved. It also shines a light on the testosterone filled battle that each father and son share as they pursue more trophies to add to their internal mantle.

This book was lyrical--the words graced the pages like a tragic opera. It is apparent that Ms. Poznansky is a talented artist, painter and lover of the arts in each delicately crafted sentence.

This novel was a true pleasure to read and I recommend it to anyone that loves a compelling story of family struggles and affairs of the heart.

How Good It Is to be Here: A Place that Honors Indie Writers

The Cover Contessa and Never Too Old for YA Books (a group on Goodreads) are continuing to honor indie authors this month. Today they welcomed me to the group and blog to chat about what it is being an author.

You can read the interview here: Never too old for Y.A. Books discussion

Home: Interior Design of a Book

You may ask, what is the 'interior design' of a book? It is the graphic arrangement of the text, and of every piece of information printed in it, from the title page in the front to the period on the last page. This includes the choice of font, the size of different fields of text, the white space around blocks of text, and the indentation of the first paragraph in the story as compared to the indentation of following paragraphs--all of which create a graphical balance; an environment for you, the reader. 

In the case of my new poetry book, Home, I have focused on several interior design details, which I illustrate in the two pages below. The odd-number pages bear the title, Home, centered at the top. The font I chose for the entire book is Baskerville (more on this font and why I prefer it to others will be posted on my blog in a separate entry.) The first letter of each story, each poem in the book is unique, in the traditional manner of illuminated manuscripts. This special attention to the first letter signifies a beginning of a new thought, and an invitation to the reader to pause before delving in. 

 I chose a fancy font for the first letter, called Kokonor. Furthermore, I placed it carefully, like a piece of art, in relation to the following letters. This can be seen in the page below, where the tail end of letter N carries the following letters, ow, embracing them. This can not be done simply by typing the letters and selecting different fonts, but rather by adding a 'text box' and carefully placing it on the page. 

The even-numbered pages of the book bear the names of the writers (my father's name, Zeev Kachel, and mine.) To eliminate confusion, the first half of the book contains my creations, the second half--his, and I credit the writer under each individual piece, as you can see in these two pages.) 

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