JM Coetzee discusses Hugo Claus
In The Guardian of 27 February, the Nobel Prize winner JM Coetzee wrote a page-long article on the poetry of Hugo Claus. Coetzee places the poet in the front rank of European poets: ‘From the beginning, however, his poetry has been marked by an uncommon mix of intelligence and passion, given expression in a medium over which he has such light-fingered control that art becomes invisible. Many of the shorter pieces in his oeuvre are merely fugitive or occasional. Nevertheless, scattered throughout in some abundance are poems whose verbal concentration, intensity of feeling and intellectual range bring their author into the first rank of European poets of the late 20th century.’
Read the complete article at books.guardian.co.uk/poetry/.
