Customer Reviews

In an Angry Season (Camino del Sol)

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This is a powerful, haunting, eloquent collection of poems that takes events in American history, such as narratives of 19th century white women's captivity by native American's and events surrounding the 1893 World's Fair, and interprets them through contemporary lenses. The result is a unique blend of the present and past which, combined, tells a sometimes troubling story.
Chavez, a teacher of creative writing and literature at Albion College in Michigan, focuses on the personal struggles of men and women, both past and present, and reveals a social history that is almost timeless in it's harsh, complex, oppressive condemnation. A few lines from the poet "A Century Plant" will give the reader a sense of the struggles experienced by many in our society, past and present:"There is a fire on earth that burns much hotter and sweeter than hell. I've felt it. Eternity is now, a lingering death I face every day. Extinction a relief."
This collection is the story of men and women made captive for more than a century. Their captors have been racism, alcoholism, poverty, emotions, failed marriages and a multitude of other events that can strike any individual, any time, without warning and many times seemingly without reason. Their stories, whether from the past or present, will be eerily familiar to many readers. This is first rate narrative poetry from a poet that does her homework and understands the power of words...and history.