In 1992, critically acclaimed poet James Ragan was in Los Angeles when riots exploded across racial and class lines. That same year he was also living in Prague when Czechoslovakia divided into two separate nations, motivated by the principles of "nationalism." This odd coincidence forms the crux of his new, eagerly anticipated book of poetry. The poems in The Hunger Wall, named for a wall near the Prague Castle, take these two cultural sensibilities that seem worlds apart and explore the subtle nuances of their unlikely similarities. In beautifully crafted and metaphorically rich language, Ragan studies what it means to set a "border," whether it be political, racial, or economic. The Hunger Wall examines a continually changing world a world of shifting cultural identities in which the widening gap between the rich and the poor is dangerously explosive.
- ISBN10 0802115764
- ISBN13 9780802115768
- Publish Date 26 October 1995
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 10 April 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 112
- Language English