Against Oblivion is an uncompromising volume that surveys the cruelty and violence of human history from the Greeks and Aztecs to the present. Blumov approaches his subjects with unabashed ambition. He rarely condescends to write a minor poem. The volume is obsessive and monochromatic; he will not stray from his daunting central theme. Yet his work has a powerful cumulative effect. His formal music moves with inexorable drive, and the best poems are thrilling in their sonorous intensity. It would be hard to imagine a poet at greater distance from the meek consensus of contemporary poetry. His work is formal, theological, impersonal, violent, and unsentimental. Blumov never asks for the reader's affection or approval. I read the book with a range of powerful and shifting emotions. Ultimately, I felt joy in meeting a young poet who takes his vocation so seriously.- Dana Gioia
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