Extradition and the Individual Talent: I review a new book on Ezra Pound

for Commonweal:

Daniel Swift runs his new book, The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics, and Madness of Ezra Pound, like a shell game. Genres flash in front of your eyes: literary criticism, political journalism, biography, institutional history. But Pound himself is under none of the shells. The purpose of the game is to teach you that Pound, subjected to every kind of study and system, remains elusive—incoherent and undiagnosable.

more (alternate title: “The Mods Must Be Crazy.” You can thank the editors for sparing you that one.)