"The spirit of the poems in 'Gestures' seems to dwell somewhere in the period of 'La Belle E poque', drawing its energy from the capitals of the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Russian Empire ... and just next to that, there is the first half of the 20th century, with its modernist and avant-garde art practices and social reforms. What unites both of these eras in Ostups' poems is their suppressed emotionality and fragmentary nature."--Page 9