Directions to the Beach of the Dead (Camino del Sol) [Paperback]

Richard Blanco (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Winner of the PEN Beyond Margins Award!" “Takes the reader on a splendid journey through time, love, family, and heritage.” —Multicultural Review“This heartfelt collection of poems is an endless pursuit of what we hope to become.” —Multicultural Review

About the Author

Richard Blanco’s first book, City of a Hundred Fires, won the University of Pittsburgh Agnes Starrett Prize in 1997. His work has appeared in many anthologies, including The Best American Poetry 2000. Blanco, who received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing in 1997, lives in Miami, where he works as an engineer and writes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816524793
• ISBN-13: 978-0816524792
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Gay

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, July 23, 2006

By 

Martin H. Dickinson "Walker in the woods, dis... (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Directions to the Beach of the Dead (Camino del Sol) (Paperback)

Blanco is the real deal. So much poetry today is bland, plain vanilla, like art that people walk by quickly in a museum to get to the gift shop or say they've been there. Blanco is anything but. Directions to the Beach, if anything, is even more fiery than his first volume, the award-winning City of a Hundred Fires. Blanco takes us everywhere--we are on a journey: through the Straits of Messina, to Paris, New York, Miami. We meet lovers (here you will find a series of "for" poems like no others--for M.C., C.S.B., B.L), friends, family members (my favorites: Abuelo and Abuela). Here are the things and stuff of poetry--a world like no other. America: give us a poetry that speaks to our finest sensibilities; that tells the truth about family, love, loss, beauty and joy. Give us the sensuous detail. Give us all of this in language (or rather languages--for what are our languages if not English and Spanish?). The leavened bread; the deep red wine.

Seek no further. Here it is.