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zuz_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Gutting poems on border crossing. The later poems worked better for me than the first few.
danielontheweb's review against another edition
3.0
corral is definitely a skilled poet. however, many of these poems were just not it for me. maybe this is due to my inability to connect with his experiences as an immigrant. from some reviews i understood the focus of his poems to be his gay identity but he only touches on this explicitly in a handful of poems which were the ones i enjoyed the most.
whatstephreads's review against another edition
3.0
This is a collection of carefully and deliberately laid-out poems, many presented in a sort of experimental/unconventional format; this might not be everyone’s preference but it serves a purpose to the author so I am cool with it. Some of the poems are in Spanish, so keep that in mind in case you are not a native speaker. For those who are, the words will be easier to understand even though the contecxt might still be muddled (if you love to interpret poetry, this will be a good one for you!) I still haven’t dabbled much in contemporary/21st century poetry but I like to read stuff here and there. Being a first-generation Mexican American, I was particularly drawn to this title, but it can certainly be universally appreciated and understood. This read was short, somewhere around 80 pages if I recall, and it was borrowed at the library, so hopefully someone else will come across and enjoy it even more than I did!
dreesreads's review against another edition
4.0
National Book Award for Poetry longlist 2020
Corral is the child of Mexican immigrants and teaches at NC State.
The first part of this collection focuses on land immigration in the Southwest. Water stations, saguaros, smugglers, bodies in the desert. The second focuses more on life as a gay man.
It is unclear to me if Corral reported on actual events and then wrote poetry, or if he read articles and then wrote poetry, or if he interviewed participants, or based his work on photos, or used multiple sources. This is exactly why I classify "poetry" as neither fiction nor nonfiction. It's its own category.
Corral also uses overlapping text, Spanish and English text, and spacing to express different things--I couldn't always tell what, but sometimes could.
Like so much poetry by academics, this short collection required 2 pages of notes explaining references and so forth--I am sure there is a certain crowd that understands these as they read, and knows the sources, and thus understands the additional layer of meaning. I am not one of those people.
Corral is the child of Mexican immigrants and teaches at NC State.
The first part of this collection focuses on land immigration in the Southwest. Water stations, saguaros, smugglers, bodies in the desert. The second focuses more on life as a gay man.
It is unclear to me if Corral reported on actual events and then wrote poetry, or if he read articles and then wrote poetry, or if he interviewed participants, or based his work on photos, or used multiple sources. This is exactly why I classify "poetry" as neither fiction nor nonfiction. It's its own category.
Corral also uses overlapping text, Spanish and English text, and spacing to express different things--I couldn't always tell what, but sometimes could.
Like so much poetry by academics, this short collection required 2 pages of notes explaining references and so forth--I am sure there is a certain crowd that understands these as they read, and knows the sources, and thus understands the additional layer of meaning. I am not one of those people.
danasbookshelves's review against another edition
3.0
I don't typically read poems, but this collection was really hyped up so I thought I'd give it a try. I really enjoyed the poems, they were beautifully written. Some were in spanish so I couldn't read them, but that's a critique on me, not the book. Some poems were stronger than others, but overall it was a great collection.