August, 2011

About the epigrams of Thomas Farber

The strategy of most literary compression is to stringently focus the reader's attention, even confine it, to the writer's carefully controlled meanings. Tom Farber's alchemical epigrams, however, manage to achieve a counterintuitive opposite. Through juxtaposition, cadence, surprise—balancing acts of extreme delicacy—Farber's dialectical wordcraft offers space for the reader's imagination and helps it roam through possibilities. His gift is not spareness but, with a wry smile, a gentle prod toward plenitude.
—Joseph Matthews, The Lawyer Who Blew Up His Desk

If quantity makes quality, then what about Tom Farber? Quantity–104 pages, 98 epigrams, longest 53 words, shortest 4. Quality, phenomenal. Reading, re-reading, ruminating–richly rewarding, no conclusions foregone or forgone.
—Gavan Daws, Follow the Music

Koans for Cohens, Like Tones for Joan's Bones, Too hip for the room
—Ben Sidran, A life in the Music

Tom Farber does a full gainer with a double twist—elegant, witty, sharp,
and surprising.
—Peter Neumeyer, The Annotated Charlotte's Web

Epigram: a terse observation aspiring to the universal and irreducible. Generally about human foible or fate. Relies on paradox, hyperbole, or wordplay to compel a flash of recognition. Kissing cousin of axioms, parables, maxims, apothegms, and Zen koans.

–Thomas Farber

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