GUEST POST // This Way to the End (A Review of Mario Savioni’s New Book by Marta Pombo Sallés)

Our Dear Readers, today’s Guest Post is an unusual one. Instead of our typical literary frippery we shall present to you a review by Marta Pombo Sallés of Mario Savioni’s new book ‘This Way To The End’.

As we all know, writing is hard work. Anyone who has tried to write a poem or essay (or even just a shopping list) can attest to this fact. You put your soul into your writings. You literally pour yourself out onto the page. That’s why we’re often a bit sceptical towards so-called literary critics and their sometimes rather dismissive reviews. In other words, breaking is not making, and criticising is not creating.

But we hope you’ll believe us when we say that writing good, professional literary criticism is an art, and that critiquing a poem sometimes takes no less effort than to write the poem itself. A really good review makes you empathise, makes you feel and think, and most importantly it makes you want to read the thing that it’s critiquing. In fact, Marta’s reviews are in a class of their own. It’s clear that she immerses herself in a book before she offers her thoughts. It’s a considered approach that we wish more reviewers would take.

But that’s enough of us for now. We should make way for Marta and Mario. Bring it on, guys!

Tati & Tony

I loved reading this book. I just find it fascinating, feel wrapped up in it, think, feel and taste every poem and short story which I see as being mainly about the individual’s eternal search for truth and beauty. I think this would be the central topic of the book as we start to read each and every poem and short story. We see how this search is very difficult in a world full of greed, wars and where love relationships do not last. As readers we are made aware that this happens because such relationships are usually based on the needs our capitalist system has created as opposed to animals’ nature, for instance, the way a family of chirping birds acts, the bird mother protecting the little birds and doing this simply out of sacrifice. The images of the chirping birds appear on several occasions as an ideal to attain which seems not to be possible in human life. That is not how love relationships work nor how an elderly mother ends her last living days, nor how one gender abuses the other, nor how a few very rich people rule the world and allow the rest to suffer from poverty and modern enslavement in a dehumanized society where Alfa people, such as Aldous Huxley showed in his novel Brave New World, are the only rulers. Truth and beauty are seen in poetry and in art like paintings. Many poems are beautifully written as the reader feels like being in front of the painting itself, everything makes us aware of the real truth of a dehumanized society in decline. I think the author wants us readers to react in front of that. He wants us all to be truth and beauty seekers. This is a powerful message of hope as expressed here:

“We have dreams,
Like a painting,
We are majestic,
Always unique, if careful”

This is the link to the book if you want to buy it, and this is Mario Savioni’s blog.

by MARTA POMBO SALLÉS
© All rights reserved 2018

19 thoughts on “GUEST POST // This Way to the End (A Review of Mario Savioni’s New Book by Marta Pombo Sallés)”

  1. ‘breaking is not making, and criticising is not creating’ is a truth that goes far beyond the literary context …
    ‘a dehumanized society in decline’ ouch, that is a hailstorm of truth …
    An incredibly thought-provoking title: This Way To The End, it conjures an image of a sequel: Behind The Finish Line.
    Thank you Marta, criticism/review without heart is ego-inflated spirit-slaying.
    Respect Mario, for such an accomplishment and appreciation for your efforts Tati and Tony.
    On critics and criticism: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-to-be-a-critic

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Firstly, I want to thank you for your kind words, sir.
      Secondly, I want to thank you for bringing my attention to this article. It was a valuable read, and I’m definitely not in the ‘punishing’ or ‘abusive’ camp. The idea that criticism (literary or otherwise) must be so in order to be useful is completely wrongheaded. Anyone who offers anything to the public is certainly doing so with their metaphorical pants down, and must be treated kindly.
      There is a way to impart thoughts and/or guidance without smacking bottoms into submission. One does not need brutality to help them see what areas of endeavour they can improve in. In fact, they’re less likely to see, and less likely to be receptive, if they feel they have been unfairly treated in any way. Being ‘negative’ often only shuts down valuable conversation.
      Again, thank you for directing me to this article as it has given me plenty to think about.

      Liked by 3 people

  3. Anything that talks about the. Essence of being I’m down with always have a pot on simmer on the back of my stove its always a pleasure to see someone’s fulfillment and how they can still push the pen
    Glad I stopped by
    As Sheldon Yoursly

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  4. Thank you so much for posting my review and also for praising me so much as a reviewer. This is very encouraging. I am humbled. I never thought I would be able to write reviews until I met my poet friend Mario Savioni and started to review his books. I am sure he will love to see this review posted on your wonderful blog. Remember a review of your latest book is on the way! ☺️

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • I just went and searched for it. WOW. Marta, this is truly the best review we’ve ever gotten! Hands down. No question. Thank you so much! You’ve clearly read our work with great care, and have managed to get the full measure of it, with even a few interpretations that we hadn’t thought of yet are equally valid. 😀

      Liked by 2 people

    • You are welcome. So glad you like my review. I loved your book and you deserve it, but I still wanted to dedicate more time to reread the poems and write a better review. I have missed out things and so it could be better.

      Liked by 2 people

    • You should definitely take the time you need to craft exactly the thing you want to craft, Marta. We are quite willing to wait to see what the final result will be like. Thank you so much again for this! (By the way, your poetic attempts are considerably more than mere ‘attempts’. Just sayin’. I hope you keep it up!) 😉

      Liked by 2 people

    • Besides I had to look up some words. I still need to find the meaning of many more in order to see all the possible denotations and connotations in the poetic context. This is a good sign: it does not only mean I am not an English native speaker, but also (and this is important) that your poetic vocabulary is incredibly rich. You are both very talented writers. I will also post this review on my blog by the end of this week. Also, I will try to post it on amazon. Hope they will accept it?
      Anyway, so glad to have met you and Tetiana in the realm of wordpress. Once more: thank you for posting my review of Mario’s book and also for taking the time to read some of my humble poetry attempts.

      Liked by 2 people

  5. I would LOVE to get to the point of just having written a book of poems to be criticised! No publicity is bad publicity dear ild Oscar Wilde may have once uttered. lol.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Still not sure how to work the layout of wordpress, but I have written a story opening as a Page, not a Blog, and left a space for people to comment on it, but as there are no tags for Pages, I don’t know if people will see it, unless they see it on my home page as a menu item called ‘Should I continue this story?’ (I think that’s what I called it). Thought I would use Blog for poems and diary entries, and Pages for stories, but I am so confused!! lol 🤪

      Liked by 2 people

    • We tend to use Pages for static, ongoing things like our About Us, Home and Shop pages. These are things that our readers may possibly see over and over again. Our other stuff is for the Blog proper. Like you, we still haven’t quite figured out what differentiates Pages from typical Posts, but I think that’s how we’ve decided to separate them in our minds. 😛

      Liked by 2 people

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