5.0 out of 5 stars
WITH AN EYE TO THE ANDALUSIAN MASTERS, June 28, 2008
This review is from: Andalusian Dawn (Paperback)
The first three quarters of this lovely book were composed with an eye toward the Moorish underpinnings of southern Spain. Carbó, himself trans-cultural (Filipino/Spanish/American English), has the ear and direct experience with the sometimes desolate landscape of Almería. Crickets, saracen wheat, and scorpions litter the way, but Carbó opens the mid-day shutters of Mojácar. Garcia-Lorca is not far away from this enterprise; nor is Carbo's inspiring and enterprising wife, Denise Duhamel (herself a poet); nor very far away is the Meditarranean Sea dotted with tribes of jellyfish...its breeze lifting the scent of oranges, figs, and camphor. There are butchers and unrequited lovers in the villages of this quixotic landscape:
If you come to Mojácar
and find a small green smake with its back
broken, don't step on it or you'll cause
an earthquake that will catch up to you
while you sleep in a continent far, far away...
If you come to Mojácar
and see a scorpion scurry by your feet,
note the direction it ran to, north, south,
east, or west. You must avoid going there
or risk the sting of losing a loved one.
This is on my shelf among other favorite books.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No