A review by booksgurrsandpurrs
Bad Mexican, Bad American: Poems by Jose Hernandez Diaz

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

5.0

 At times autobiographical and at others ascending to surrealistic heights, Hernandez-Diaz poetry collection is written as prose poems existing somewhere in between literary categorization in a way I'd liken the experience of everyday life. In "My Father Never Ate Until Everyone Had Eaten", he reflects on his childhood self misunderstanding his father not eating at the dinner table as an indication he didn't want to spend time with his family, but in reality it was out of fiscal necessity. There's a lot of love between these pages; love of culture, love of community, music, art and the artists that shaped him.

The prose poems took a little getting used to and as the poems became more surreal I leaned into the world the author was creating.