Both Frank Smith’s Guantanamo and Sawako Nakayasu’s The Ants were reviewed by Grace Cavilieri at Washington Independent Review of Books.

Guantanamo:
We can see villains in the war as well as terrorists as well as victims. What dismantles the mind is the individuals whose destiny was shaped by being in the wrong village at the wrong time—perhaps the interviewees are cunning also. There are discrepancies and lies. Perhaps this is fear. Perhaps guilt, sometimes practiced humility – the prisoners’ way of survival. For us not knowing guilt from innocence is terrifying reading.

The Ants:
You will not believe, until you read Nakayasu, that ants can be protagonists of social systems, ecosystems but also systems of thought— these prose poems are poetic inquiries, preoccupations, prophecies, anecdotes, negotiations, myths, wry humor and sharp argument folded in – ants – ants, ants as heroes – symbolic, metabolic, philosophic, endowed with the lasting substance of poetry.

Read Cavalieri’s full set of reviews here.