Carpet Diem: Tales from the World of Oriental Rugs

Poet Bradley (A Stroll in the Rain) unfurls a rich and surprisingly intimate account of his entry into the world of oriental rug–collecting. After his interest was sparked by a Persian throw rug inherited from his great-grandfather, what began as an “absorbing distraction from life’s adamantine realities” morphed into a fixation that brought him around the world; into contact with unscrupulous salespeople, devoted artisans, and colorful fellow obsessives; and often into conversation with the past (“An antique kilim” can make “you feel you are shaking hands with history”). What emerge most vividly are the detailed portraits of the relationships he forms (after an Iranian rug salesman he’d been in touch with disappears without a trace, Bradley “keep[s] thinking I’ve caught a glimpse of him: sitting in the last row of a country auction, hovering at the edge of the crowd at an antiques fair”) and his genuine reverence for the meticulousness of the craft (“Weaving is a medium in which one cannot revise. You can touch up a canvas or rewrite a stanza, but you can’t... erase your mistakes while making a carpet without tearing it apart”). Elevated by a poet’s patient attention to detail, it’s a captivating window into the culture and history of an artisanal craft. This will appeal to anyone who’s fallen deeply for a new passion. Photos. (May)