But Parini shows that Frost's correspondence displays a genuine fondness for Holden and that Frost acted as his mentor. Thompson and Meyer both portray Frost's temperament as unfailingly that of a prima donna, yet Parini shows Frost in Russia deflecting attention to Anna Akhmatova, one of the great Russian poets of the century. So the book is indeed revisionist. Not that Parini shies away from the sexual Frost when it is warranted. Further credit to the book is that it reads like a novel.
Events unfold dramatically and suspensefully, with documentation tucked away at the back.
More's the pity, then, that Parini often allows his prose to become hackneyed. There's much more of such mindless phrasing. Moreover, Parini has allowed incorrect name spellings and identifications to appear. Robert Phillips' sixth book of poetry, Spinach Days , will be published in the spring of next year by Johns Hopkins University Press. He is poetry editor of the Texas Review.