Poetry. Lewis Turco… appears to have combined the longevity of Utnapishtim with the energy and industry of Gilgamesh: once seized with inspiration, he wrote THE HERO ENKIDU at white heat in his eightieth year. The inspiration itself is of the kind that, once someone has come up with it, makes us wonder why no one ever thought of it before, because in a number of ways Enkidu is a more interesting and attractive figure than Gilgamesh.–Michael Palma, from the Introduction