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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
I think the concept of keeping parts of yourself hidden from others could be a relatable concept for most women. I love Julia Alvarez and all of her works. I have always thought her novels read a bit like poetry, and it was nice to see her poems in conjunction with stories like "How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents."
As a Latina reading this, I felt it was extremely relatable and deeply personal. Julia Alvarez highlights the struggles of growing up Hispanic in America coupled with being a woman. Her writing forms a connection that allows readers to glimpse into an underrepresented point of view. Her words are elegant and impactful so much so that this has come to be one of my favorite collection of poems. This novel is delicate but, strong. The topics she mentions still stand true to today and must never be washed away. "My kind of women aren't the ones you want"-Julia Alvarez (The woman I kept to myself)
I've enjoyed Julia Alvarez as a novelist, but I hadn't been aware she was also a poet.
Julia's poetry reads more like prose, and its meaning is accessible even to those who aren't regular connoisseurs of poetry. This collection is a peek into her biography. She shares her frustrations and feelings of being stifled as an immigrant girl, and moves through her development as a woman and as a writer. I connect best with people through their sense of humor, so I enjoyed the way hers sneaks into her poetry.
I love the way she references so many of her favorite poets within her own poems. She mentions everyone from Shakespeare and Keats to Billy Collins and Adrienne Rich. It's a nice way of paying tribute to those who have touched her throughout her life and influenced her own writing. She's even written a poem called I Dream of Allen Ginsberg.
Julia's poetry reads more like prose, and its meaning is accessible even to those who aren't regular connoisseurs of poetry. This collection is a peek into her biography. She shares her frustrations and feelings of being stifled as an immigrant girl, and moves through her development as a woman and as a writer. I connect best with people through their sense of humor, so I enjoyed the way hers sneaks into her poetry.
I love the way she references so many of her favorite poets within her own poems. She mentions everyone from Shakespeare and Keats to Billy Collins and Adrienne Rich. It's a nice way of paying tribute to those who have touched her throughout her life and influenced her own writing. She's even written a poem called I Dream of Allen Ginsberg.
I found this book at a bookstore, and I read a whole bunch of it there. And then I used all my willpower and left it -- only to buy it on Amazon. Sometimes the internet is evil.
I really liked it. The poems are fresh, but Alvarez is a poets poet. She knows what she's doing. She writes about writing, about living two cultures, and womanhood, and trees, and my other favorite things. I didn't love every poem or agree with every idea, but I have a few new favorites - in a new hardback book.
I really liked it. The poems are fresh, but Alvarez is a poets poet. She knows what she's doing. She writes about writing, about living two cultures, and womanhood, and trees, and my other favorite things. I didn't love every poem or agree with every idea, but I have a few new favorites - in a new hardback book.
This collection of poetry is a great addition to the American immigrant experience shelf, in particular the Spanish-speaking, Latin American immigrant experience shelf, perhaps right next to Ana Menendez's "In Cuba I was a German Shepherd." It is a collection of carefully distilled observations and autobiographical confessions of growing up and being Dominican-American.
But do not be fooled, that's just a bit of what's in here. There is also a lot about being a writer, choosing words, working words, polishing and obsessing about words. Then what becomes interesting, at least to me, is that this particular collection contains poems that could have been written in paragraph format (some people refer to this as prose poetry, though there are different kinds, and this kind is certainly much much more prose than other prose poetry I have read) and you'd have a collection of half-page long diary entries or super short (flash) fiction. And I have not read all of Alvarez' poetry to know if she writes only like this or not, but this kind of prose poetry does not give me the impression that every word was obsessed over and every line was revised endlessly to capture that one particular way of saying something. So that can be amazing craft, or none at all, and in the end it does not matter. But it is certainly not the kind of poetry that you would have to read and re-read in amazement of how those words fit together to give you not a narrative but a feeling. This collection is much more about the narrative, some predictable, but very many surprisingly fresh. It is more about a few well-put words lingering as an afterthought once you are done with a poem. Apart from the immigrant experience and the writer's woes and joys, Alvarez explores family relations, marriage, nature, career woes (as can be applied to any career, not just writing,) and self-analysis.
I would recommend this collection to those who have trouble with poetry, those who think poetry does not make sense, those who claim "poetry is too hard." I would also recommend it to those who find solace in literature and poetry.
But do not be fooled, that's just a bit of what's in here. There is also a lot about being a writer, choosing words, working words, polishing and obsessing about words. Then what becomes interesting, at least to me, is that this particular collection contains poems that could have been written in paragraph format (some people refer to this as prose poetry, though there are different kinds, and this kind is certainly much much more prose than other prose poetry I have read) and you'd have a collection of half-page long diary entries or super short (flash) fiction. And I have not read all of Alvarez' poetry to know if she writes only like this or not, but this kind of prose poetry does not give me the impression that every word was obsessed over and every line was revised endlessly to capture that one particular way of saying something. So that can be amazing craft, or none at all, and in the end it does not matter. But it is certainly not the kind of poetry that you would have to read and re-read in amazement of how those words fit together to give you not a narrative but a feeling. This collection is much more about the narrative, some predictable, but very many surprisingly fresh. It is more about a few well-put words lingering as an afterthought once you are done with a poem. Apart from the immigrant experience and the writer's woes and joys, Alvarez explores family relations, marriage, nature, career woes (as can be applied to any career, not just writing,) and self-analysis.
I would recommend this collection to those who have trouble with poetry, those who think poetry does not make sense, those who claim "poetry is too hard." I would also recommend it to those who find solace in literature and poetry.
Read it during a separation, comparable to a nasty divorce. Alvarez uses plenty of key/vivid phrases that are profoundly poignant, such as "living life without guard rails". Alvarez has a way with imagery and words. If you think in pictures, this book is a sensory pleasure.
I have very little experience reading poetry but reading Alvarez was delightful. I didn't much enjoy the first seven poems, collected as Seven Trees, but the second collection, The Woman I Kept to Myself was astounding; the third collection, while not as good as the second, was quite good. I'm excited to read some more poetry this year, especially because it's an area I'm not very familiar with.