Reflections on Espionage : The Question of Cupcake
, by John Hollander; With a new Introduction and Annotations by the authorNote: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
- ISBN: 9780300079661 | 0300079664
- Cover: Trade Paper
- Copyright: 11/10/1999
This book-length poem by one of the major poets of our era is structured as a series of messages transmitted by a master spy to the director of spy operations and to a number of his fellow spies. The spy speaks of his own alienation and sense of purposelessness as a secret agent -- a metaphor for a human existence committed to ordering, deciphering, and making sense of a world of random signs. First published in 1974, the book is now reprinted with a substantial introduction by the author that elaborates on the genesis of the poem, the literary figures who inspired some of the characters, the poem's reception, and other matters.