A fascinating saga weaving desire and memory, war and beauty, lies, truth, and the persistence of art. Fernando Pessoa and Jose Saramago are certainly among Gaspar's kindred writers, but I'm also reminded of Lawrence Durrell's
The Alexandria Quartet–I feel that same total immersion. I'm swept away.
The Poems of Renata Ferreira is gorgeous and witty, wildly smart–even the end notes are pure poetry!–Ellen Bass
In his unique fashion, Frank X. Gaspar draws the margins of Atlantic culture closer, as the waters of Salazar's politics and the Carnation Revolution flow onto the shores of the Portuguese community of Provincetown and flow on again to Bohemian New York. Along with the foreword and poems, a welter of notes extends the fictional romp with riddles of identity, history, myth, and the untraveled territories of the mind.
The Poems of Renata Ferreira is vintage Gaspar–a deft and intriguing performance.–Teresa Alves
There are poems pulled from a well, others dropped from the sky. What fortune that Frank X. Gaspar was there with his basket to catch the poems of Renata Ferreira, work that through his fingers emerges as a meditation on eros as resistance, the dangers of country, and the ghost hand of artistic influence. A love story, an animal howl,
The Poems of Renata Ferreira is a song of saudade that I never wanted to end.–Lindsay Whalen
Frank Gaspar is a wonderfully gifted author who–luckily for us–happens to be Portuguese-American. Renata's poems remind me of the passion and outrage of
Novas Cartas Portuguesas by the Three Marias. Like
Novas Cartas, this is also a book that subverts genre, composed at it is (seamlessly) of memoir, fiction, essay, notes, and, of course, Renata's poetry. The result is a remarkable book that is sure to keep readers and critics entertained for many years to come.–Antonio Ladeira