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The Roundtable

"The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem" by Michael Hollis

By Joe Donahue
Published January 23, 2023 at 11:10 AM EST
W. W. Norton & Company

Renowned as one of the world’s greatest poems, T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" has been said to describe the moral decay of a world after war and the search for meaning in a meaningless era. It has been labeled the most truthful poem of its time — it has also been branded a masterful fake. A century after its publication in 1922, T. S. Eliot’s enigmatic masterpiece remains one of the most influential works ever written, and yet one of the most mysterious. In "The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem," Matthew Hollis reconstructs the intellectual creation of the poem and brings the material reality of its charged times vividly to life.

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Joe Donahue
Joe talks to people on the radio for a living. In addition to countless impressive human "gets" - he has talked to a lot of Muppets. Joe grew up in Philadelphia, has been on the area airwaves for more than 25 years and currently lives in Washington County, NY with his wife, Kelly, and their dog, Brady. And yes, he reads every single book.
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