Customer Reviews

I Ask the Impossible: Poems

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Ana Castillo is the type of writer one expects to find in Latin America: a prolific intellectual who seamlessly integrates the personal and the political in her work. In this sense, her poetry reminds me of the work of the Salvadoran Roque Dalton or the Uruguayan Mario Benedetti, writers who became the conscience of their respective countries and communities. In the poem 'Since the Creation of My Son and My First Book' Ana writes on the birth of her son and the writing of her first book--an analogy that in lesser hands would be a cliche--and gives us a poem of raw energy and political significance; for readers who idealized the life of the poet, here's the proof: it's a most difficult career choice. The title poem is poignant and beautiful: 'I ask the impossible: love me forever.' Ana wrote that poem shortly after the death of her own father, and 'I Ask the Impossible' is therefore one of the most moving testimonies of love I have ever read, about what love really means. This is a varied collection of poetry, and although Ana has not divided the book into sections some sequences are clearly discernible: there are several poems on her son Marcel, all of them charming and beautiful, there are political poems concerned with the fate of Latino women across the Americas, there are lighthearted poems in Spanish about the difficulties of love and there are portraits and hommages of Ana's relatives and friends, etc. In Ana's ouvre, her poetry is like a golden thread connecting her life and her times. Note that her autobiographical poems are often written several years after the events they describe; they are meditations on the significance of her life, showing why Ana is the real thing: a writer with a purpose, with a mission, who takes the time in her poetry to reflect on the value of her life and work. This is clearly an essential book for those concerned with contemporary Chicano writing, for fans of Ana's work, and for all readers who understand the power of commitment.

I do think Ana is an amazing writer, I ask the Impossible is brilliantly written, who cares if she's on the cover.
Well, let's see her on the horse, the beloved Irish American poet Tess Gallagher put one on her book.
Ana lives on a ranch, why not? It's so hard for a writer to sell books, I say whatever helps! Market away!

I have been teaching Chicana and Latina Literature for nearly twenty years. No one dunks that ball each and each time with my students as this prolific, immensely intelligent, politically committed and talented writer. Whether it is a tale about the Southwest, expounding on the specificity of being a brown woman in the U.S. or teaching us how to love ourselves as a people, she does it all with the ease of the master craftsperson that she has become. My favorite poems in this collection were: 1. Without question the most poignant love poem I've read in a long time, "I Ask the Impossible, 2. A poem for her son, which shows her trademark sense of humor, "El Chicle,"; and the eerily prophetic, "While I Was Gone a War Began," (in this one she foresaw the plane hijackings by Bin Laden 4 years before they happened!) among several others. I look forward to sharing her next collection with my future students.

The last reviewer had it right. And what's with the cover? It's further proof that the marketing machine is in high gear on this one, hoping to bank on the multi-culti angle. You don't see Mark Doty's mug on the cover of his books, or Philip Levine's on his. And a great poet like Lucille Clifton, who also happens to be multicultural, doesn't need her photo on the cover; the work is good enough without the additonal hard-sell. The fact is, Castillo's poems are dreadful, and the marketing department needed an angle. I can hardly wait to see the cover of her next volume. I suspect she'll be riding a horse.

Ah, Pablo Neruda must be rolling over in his grave. If what you want is pure drivel, poetry written by somebody who seems not to understand the first thing about poetry, or vapid verse, then I highly recommend this new volume by Ana Castillo. You want to read good Latino/a poets? Try Sandra Cisneros, Virgil Suarez, Julia Alvarez, or Alberto Rios. If Castillo seriously expects to be placed alongside these names, she does indeed ask the impossible.