Poetry. ESCAPE FROM COMBRAY presents an intimate cycle of poems exploring the growing sense of urban ennui and dislocation affecting a generation of Americans. Snyder's poems evokes a psychogeographic landscape where quotidian symbols of the working class juxtapose with the timeless profundity of Proust, Virgil, and Dante. "Stan Brakhage writes 'The American inherently struggles to be gentle and at the same time not to be taken advantage of.' Nowhere is this notion more evident than in Rick Snyder's remarkable poems, whose sweet-bitter speakers reveal the numerous states (both territories and conditions) with which--and in which--to fall in love and take issue. I'm very glad this book is in the world"--Graham Foust.