In The Fatalist—a book length, syntactically demanding, semantically invigorating poem divided into many sections—ideas accrue in a complex of meaningful address, which might include daily intimacies, popular culture’s banalities, and references to illustrious writers and thinkers of the past and their systems of philosophical inquiry. In direct comment, and in the more subtle effect upon the reader of these surprising juxtapositions, Hejinian offers canny, humorous reflection upon our species’ endless attempts to transmit insight regarding our situation as sentient beings. While a more typical means of discursive flow is disrupted, the reader is addressed intimately, directly, and repeatedly in this ensemble of eclectic parts, which turn emotive, descriptive, imagistic, analytic, ironic, in phrase upon phrase, sentence upon sentence. Hejinian both spotlights and subverts the language functions of her phrasings with a (seemingly) casual dexterity. Such attention not only exposes to us the limits that our language structures place upon what is allowable and express-able in speech, but also engenders an even greater affinity and rapport between writer and reader than would a less subversive syntactic flow. From The Fatalist a reader can gain not only a greater appreciation, but also an enlivened enthusiasm for the endlessly re-definable activity that is human address regarding the human condition. (Omnidawn)