| L-Aħħar Rími is divided into three sections. The first is a poetic defence of our battered environment, the second comprises a series of love poems, the third revolves mainly around socio-political issues, an element which has been present in all Fenech’s works… Fenech’s current output enhances the enigmatic nature of his work. An explorer and chronicler in terms of form and content, he is in many ways a confessional poet. For him poetry is a continual search for truth about self and the universe. |
Publisher’s Press Release
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The title of this collection of poems and prose-poems […] could be termed ambiguous. Maltese ‘l-aħħar’ can be translated into English as either ‘the latest’ or ‘last’, or ‘the last’. Let’s hope that Fenech means the former nuances and not the latter…Fenech is essentially a product of the literary revival of the Sixties [and] even in this volume he shows that he has not lost the verve of those protesting days…His prose-poems reflect the thin line that divides good poetry from good prose. His verse formations reveal an atomicized environment. His word-elisions betray an urge to encapsulate thoughts and situations that would otherwise run away.
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Joe Felice Pace
“A Reflection of Modern Times”
The People on Sunday, 11.1.1998
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| Fenech ta kontribut enormi lill-qasam letterarju biex nersqu lejn it-tiġdid, lejn rinaxximent. Il-poeżija ta’ Fenech baqgħet rilevanti sa llum u ma tilfitx is-sengħa tagħha. L-Aħħar Rími jkompli jikkonferma ċ-ċentralità li Fenech jokkupa fl-istorja letterarja ta’ dawn l-aħħar tletin sena…Il-ktieb hu maqsum fi tliet partijiet. L-ewwel parti hi dedikata lill-ambjent. L-ambjent hu suġġett topiku imma qatt daqs hawn ma jinħass ħaj u riverat. Il-poeta jikkundanna l-qerda ambjentali; f’ “Kunċert għall-Ambjent” iġarrab b’passjoni qawwija dan l-istupru modern. |
Sergio Grech
“Antoloġija miżgħuda b’ġawhriet poetiċi rari”
In-Nazzjon, 17.2.1998
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| VF is a slow and deliberate craftsman who carefully mulls every idea and scrupulously tunes his language, honing it to achieve its full effect. His books of poetry are, therefore, rare events and they have to be savoured like rich aged wine. Fenech’s relentless search for answers has to be seen in the historical context in which he places himself, a context which is often too baffling to make sense of…Many of the poems, reflecting the mood of recent times, do not make for comfortable reading… All this seems to provide a key to understanding most of Fenech’s verse where, in the face of the devaluation of most of the traditional values, the individual is the only reality worth clinging to. |
Louis J. Scerri
“Flowerings of Maturity”
The Sunday Times, 8.3.1998
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| These intense, heart-felt poems are like the oozings of the winepress of life, almost a bitter leave-taking, and quite a surprise to one who, like me, knew, until these poems, only a gentle VF, full of life, soft spoken, and never a hard or wicked word… I cannot believe the poet will lie down without a fight, to die like an old toothless lion. How does Morte d’Arthur end? Doesn’t the full moon usher in a new day? |
Norbert Ellul-Vincenti
“Coming to the end of the road with Victor Fenech”
The Times, 9.4.1998
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| Fenech jibdel l-osservazzjoni f’sensazzjoni, u mill-konkret jgħaddi għall-ispiritwali u l-metaforiku. Fis-skiet Fenech jagħraf lilu nnifsu. Jara ż-żmien għaddej malajr u b’hekk tinħoloq l-ansjetà fih. Insibu bosta burdati: mill-ironija saċ-ċiniżmu. Fil-poeżija ta’ Fenech hemm riflessjonijiet ta’ ġrajjiet li seħħew fid-dinja, u poeżija mimlija sentimenti. |
Patrick Sammut
“Titwila lejn Victor Fenech”
Il-Mument, 19.12.1999
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Studju Kritiku:
Oliver Friggieri: “Bejn l-Angst u l-Kelma”,
L-Aħħar Rími, Pubblikazzjoni PIN, 1997, 1-7.
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