SOURCE: "The Word Hangs Back," in The New York Times Book Review, June 30, 1985, p. 33.

In the following review, Heim offers a mixed assessment of An Umbrella from Piccadilly.

The Nobel Prize for Literature comes in several varieties. There is the prize that confirms universal recognition, the prize that plays politics, the prize that celebrates the visionary orientation Alfred Nobel originally meant to promote. And from time to time the Swedish Academy awards a prize that seems calculated to redress an oversight; it virtually introduces an author to the world.

Several years ago the judges awarded such a Nobel Prize to the Polish poet and essayist Czeslaw Milosz. The choice proved highly effective: Mr. Milosz's work and thought have been appreciated by many who would otherwise never have heard his name. Mr. Milosz, who now lives in California, has traveled widely in the intervening years; he has given readings...