Francis Heaney

Francis Heaney is the author of the anagram-laden anthology Holy Tango of Literature. Here he recommends six books, using only the letters in each title and author’s name.

Cemetery Nights by Stephen Dobyns (out of print). These disconcerting poems, composed in prose rhythms, bring to mind sinister bedtime stories concerning identity crises, domesticity gone to the dogs, etc. It’s not Mother Goose. Buy it at Amazon.com

Watchmen by Alan Moore (DC Comics, $20). Whoa, a mammoth cartoon tome that can enthrall e’en a non-teen—not a normal hero tale at all. How can each character act realer than real? A rare treat.

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Buy it at Amazon.com

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (Harvest, $13). Translated into English (it was Italian first), this series of narratives that never resolve, thwarting one’s longing to see things to their close, is interwoven with a tale of love—for writing, for another, for life.

Buy it at Amazon.com

A Singing Dictionary by Elvis Costello (Warner Bros., $30). Since getting it (and a nearly-seven-string) in college, I’ve revisited it over and over.

Buy it at Amazon.com

A Humument by Tom Phillips (Thames & Hudson, $28). As Phillips paints atop a lame MS, his lit one-upmanship mutates into an aesthete’s sumptuous amusement.

Buy it at Amazon.com

The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus: All the Words

Buy Vol. 1 at Amazon.com

Buy Vol. 2 at Amazon.com