- Hardcover: 176 pages
- Publisher: Algonquin Books (Dec 7 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1565124065
- ISBN-13: 978-1565124066
- Product Dimensions: 20.7 x 13.4 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 308 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,477,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Author of the popular novels How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies, Alvarez continues to explore themes of cultural difference and personal experience in her new collection of poems. The book, which marks her fourth collection of poetry, comprises 75 poems of 30 lines each; the formal constraint is an organizing principle for these sometimes meandering autobiographical poems. A good many poems explore her development and status as a writer, specifically as a Latina: "Even I, childless one, intend to write/ New Yorker fiction in the Cheever style / but all my stories tell where I came from." The midsection of the book, "The Woman I Kept to Myself," roams from nostalgic reflections on childhood birthday presents to meditations on eating disorders to speedily resolved family conflicts to personal, and worldwide, losses: "Why did it take so long? Mom and Dad's deaths/ a friend's cancer, a cousin's accident/ the Twin Towers, the war on innocents...." Seeing the first signs of spring sets the world to rights again: "Then suddenly, a daffodil, a patch/ of crocuses... and back into the intact Towers flew/ stick figures, like a film in reverse." Most poems here arrive at similar recastings of hard truths; often, however, one feels that both sides of the equation are too easily won, drawing close to cliche and facile reconciliation: "I've woken to the world just as it is," she writes, "and that's enoughâ€"in fact, more than enough."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–This tightly structured collection of 75 poems is divided into three sections, and each poem has three stanzas, exactly. Alvarez's voice, however, is as free and strong as the free verse she composes. The poet, who is from the Dominican Republic, writes about being raised with her sisters in New York. The subjects are personal–love, marriage, rejection, divorce, death, religion–but also universal. She says in "Why IWrite," "Unless I write things down I never know what I think, no less feel." This book will appeal to readers not only for the eloquence with which Alvarez describes her feelings and discoveries, but also for the humor. In "Abbot Academy" she notes that as a schoolgirl she found that ladies "…learned to be blondies even if they were dark-haired, olive-skinned, spic-chicks like me." Readers who enjoyed How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1992) or In the Time of the Butterflies (1995, both Plume) will love her poetry. Teens approaching adulthood will appreciate the poet who turned to "paper solitude" and through many drafts discovered "the woman I kept to myself."–Sheila Janega, Fairfax County Public Library, Great Falls, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent investment of time....,
By Raine Devries (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Woman I Kept to Myself: Poems (Hardcover)
I have never been a huge fan of poetry; however, when I found out I was going to have the opportunity to meet Julia Alvarez at a reception I was planning, I read this book. It is thoroughly engaging and every time I picked it up I had a hard time putting it back down. If the eyes are the windows to someone's soul, these poems are Ms. Alvarez's virtual eyes for us to gaze into. In closing, if you have an opportunity to attend a reading with Ms. Alvarez, I highly recommend it.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent investment of time....,
By Raine Devries - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Woman I Kept to Myself: Poems (Hardcover)
I have never been a huge fan of poetry; however, when I found out I was going to have the opportunity to meet Julia Alvarez at a reception I was planning, I read this book. It is thoroughly engaging and every time I picked it up I had a hard time putting it back down. If the eyes are the windows to someone's soul, these poems are Ms. Alvarez's virtual eyes for us to gaze into. In closing, if you have an opportunity to attend a reading with Ms. Alvarez, I highly recommend it.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, some well written poetry.,
By Jason Stahl - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Woman I Kept to Myself: Poems (Hardcover)
After being frustrated by a number of poorly written books of poetry, this book fell into my lap. Not only did I enjoy this book, but I am sure to read everything else published by Julia Alvarez. A highly recommended read for anyone. Her poems are deep and thoughtful and cover a variety of topics.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Woman I Kept to Myself,
By Petit Chou "petitchou777" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Woman I Kept to Myself: Poems (Hardcover)
I love Julia Alvarez's other books, especially "In the Time of the Butterflies." This is her newest book, a book of poetry. You can see how these poems reflects the author and they really touched home with me. I read and reread the poems and found pieces of myself in almost each one. I have marked the ones that mean the most to me and return to read them often.
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