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cherrie_bluhd's review against another edition
5.0
Juan Felipe Herrera gives me the absolute splendor and joy of feeling like I am reading for the first time. I haven’t felt in awe like this in a long time, not since I was a kid. What an incredible feeling, an incredible writer.
endemictoearth's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
4.5
emelynreads's review against another edition
emotional
sad
fast-paced
I'm new to poetry and I don't think I understood the prose fully enough to comprehend each message. I respect the themes and wished I connected with the poems on a deeper level.
froggin_around_'s review against another edition
5.0
"the wall
it is more than an arbitrary stop or as it is called the birder it is
an arrangement of agreements of always-war why is that when all
we desire is peace bread wather clothes work a thatched roof - &
humanity - most of all"
it is more than an arbitrary stop or as it is called the birder it is
an arrangement of agreements of always-war why is that when all
we desire is peace bread wather clothes work a thatched roof - &
humanity - most of all"
chamomiledaydreams's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed reading this poetry collection, especially because of the way Herrera formats each poem, so that sometimes, your eyes have to jump from one word to the next and zigzag down the page. I also like the way it's divided into multiple sections, with brief prose-poems or quotations at the beginning of each.
beatrixcesana's review against another edition
3.0
A collection of poetry that reflects on immigration, why all the horrors, why can't we all be one. At times, Herrera's voice feels like the poetic equivalent of Steinbeck's raw yet longing prose. The author represents through alternatively cryptic and explicit language a pressing political and social reality. His poetry is elaborate on the level of the paratext, that is graphics and variegated linguistic elements. Herrera's work is dissentient and demanding. Struggle, injustice, monstrosity, they're all in this work. Still, in the poems, the hope of a better future is restorative, it is deployed as an imaginative gateway from life's uncontrollable structural agony.
cathsgraphs's review against another edition
2.0
While I deeply appreciate the foundations of this book, I couldn’t connect to his poems/writing style. I did appreciate that there were poems written in English and Spanish.
lllkilli's review against another edition
3.0
Collection of poetry around Latino illegal immigration, experiences, and relationships. Weaves English and Spanish together throughout many poems with some having full translations. Interesting collection of different poetry styles, although the poems seemed more... restrained than I would have expected given the subject matter.