Behind the Lines is a gathering of reviews and critical writings from one of our foremost poets. Hofmann's preoccupations as a reader are manifold, whether looking east to the writers of the other Europe or westwards to the American scene. There are pieces here on such diverse figures as Frank O'Hara, Eugenio Montale, Seamus Heaney, Otto Dix, Wim Wenders, Paul Muldoon and Malcolm Lowry. The virtues of Michael Hofmann's prose are continuous with those of his poetry. No reader has more adroit ways of withholding assent, or a style so raptly self-searching in its enthusiasms.