Böcker av Thaddeus Rutkowski

Thaddeus Rutkowski's Safe Colors is a novel that tells the story of a biracial boy who grows up in Northern Appalachia and moves as a young adult to New York City. One of the driving forces in his life is the desire to fit in as a person of color in a white society. Further complicating matters is a childhood spent in a difficult family situation. The boy's Polish American father is a frustrated artist who drinks too much, while his Chinese immigrant mother works outside the home, away from the father and children. Over the years, the family shrinks and splits, but the surviving members eventually come back together to rally around their ailing mother.

The poems in Tricks of Light, a breathtaking collection from award winning writer Thaddeus Rutkowski, meditate on myriad ways of seeing not merely the small, astounding mysteries of life but how seeing, the effort to see clearly, might be the most important thing of all. Under the clear and steady lines, with spare, precise imagery, the poems pulse with the competing urges of love and loneliness. There are also startling comparisons between observational moments and the tender practice of the Buddha that are perfectly balanced with humor. To the patient watcher, a city becomes the universe where the observing self on a bench contemplates a snail, which is, in fact, a wad of gum. At a time when reality itself is questioned and truth appears in short supply, the poet, through his keen eye, assures us that enlightenment is not only possible, but necessary.