Speech! Speech! [Inscribed copy] [signed]

In its ferocity and love, in its glimpses of timeless beauty, even in the praises it bestows, this is a supreme "how to" book - how to be (or at least how to begin the process of being) honest. In speech, for a start. With a poem for each of the 120 days of Sodom, it may go too far - but then, as T.S. Eliot said, it is only by going too far that you find out how far you can go.This is History (and yet how different from Robert Lowell's unrolling) and these are Dream Songs (and as nightmarishly just as John Berryman's visions). A challenge to all concerned.