A powerful poetic sequence confessing the fictional life of a lost, wounded soul in a decaying New England town. Jantz does not shy away from meeting the big questions head-on: the meaning of life, of love, of God's absence, of death. It is at once a sober embrace of reality and a plaintive cry for redemption. Jantz weaves these themes into an existential tapestry that is rich in imagery and meaning, yet direct and highly accessible. It is a profound artistic achievement not to be missed. Jantz's 'Wasteland' is Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and he masterfully describes the decay of an old mill-town and a profoundly alienated man, with an unflinching, gimlet eye. This lyrical narrative has the depth of a novella, and the heightened language and insight of a brilliant poem. - Doug Holder, Editor, Ibbetson Street Exquisitely lyric, these poems are an extraordinary blend of powerful emotion and intellectual reflection. Unlike most depictions of the struggle to create a new self, the key here is the philosophy of Sartre, whose ideas are sometimes invoked directly but never prosaically. Especially wonderful is the poet's reflections on Nothingness, interweaving the term's significations of oblivion and meaninglessness with Sartre's concept as an essential factor of consciousness as self-creating and world-revealing. Philosophy has been made poetry. A book that enlightens at first reading but demands many more. - Dr. Hazel E. Barnes, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Colorado; translator of Sartre's Being and Nothingness and Search for a Method, and author of The Literature of Possibility, and An Existentialist Ethics.