In this debut collection, Natasha Trethewey draws moving domestic portraits of families, past and present, caught in the act of earning a living and managing their households. Small moments taken from a labor-filled day reveal the equally hard emotional work of memory and forgetting, the extraordinary difficulty of trying to live with or without someone.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
With poems based on photographs of African-Americans at work in the pre-civil rights era 20th-century America (not included), Trethewey's fine first collection functions as near-social documentary. In tableaux like "These Photographs" and "Signs, Oakvale, Mississippi, 1941," Trethewey evenly takes up the difficult task of preserving, and sometimes speculating upon, the people and conditions of the mostly Southern, mostly black working class. The sonnets, triplets and flush-left free verse she employs give the work an understated distance, and Trethewey's relatively spare language allows the characters, from factory and dock workers to homemakers, to take on fluid, present-tense movement: "Her lips tighten speaking/ of quitting time when/ the colored women filed out slowly/ to have their purses checked,/ the insides laid open and exposed/ by the boss's hand" ("Drapery Factory, Gulfport, Mississippi, 1956"). When Trethewey, a member of the Dark Room Collective (a group of young African-American writers including Thomas Sayers Ellis, Kevin Young and Janice Lowe), turns midway through the book to matters of family and autobiography, the book loses some momentum. But when the speaker comments on the actions of others, as in "At the Station," the poems correspondingly deepen: "Come back. She won't. Each/ glowing light dims/ the farther it moves from reach,// the train pulling clean/ out of the station. The woman sits/ facing where she's been.// She's chosen her place with careA/ each window another eye, another/ way of seeing what's back there." Trethewey's work follows in the wake of history and memory, tracing their combined effect on her speaker and subjects, and working to recover and preserve vitally local histories. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Trethewey's verse explores the various forms of labor-from the men on the docks to the women employed as domestics. Of a photograph of washerwomen taken by Clifton Johnson in 1902, Trethewey writes: "But in this photograph, / women do not smile, / their lips a steady line / connecting each quiet face. / They walk the road toward home, / a week's worth of take-in laundry / balanced on their heads / lightly as church hats. Shaded / by their loads, they do not squint, / their ready gaze through him, / to me, straight ahead." Her remembrances of her own family are touching. In "Cameo," she recalls peering out from her bed as a child to watch her mother dress by the light of an oil lamp and in "Hot Combs" how the heat in the kitchen made her mother "glow" when she pulled combs from the fire to dress her hair, "her face made strangely beautiful / as only suffering can do." Her father, who loved reading and scholarship and had "gentle hands," had been an amateur boxer who first took up the sport while still a boy and later "turned that anger into a prize." From him she learned that "living meant suffering, loss" and that "really living meant taking risks" ("Amateur Fighter"). The plain language and surface simplicity of these poems is deceptive. Their insights into the history and experience of black Americans contain a profound message for all of us.A noteworthy debut by a remarkable young poet -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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More About the Author
Natasha Trethewey is the author of two previously published collections, Belloq's Ophelia and Domestic Work. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, she was the recipient of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Grolier Poetry Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. She teaches creative writing at Emory University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Domestic Work is that rare creation, a collection that will appeal to non-poets as well as to the most dedicated student of poetry. That's because Trethewey uses her translucent talent to create poems that are clear, poems that say something interesting, poems that stay with you. If you've never thought you would want to read a book of poetry, start here. If you've worked on your poetry craft for years and want to savor a master poet, buy this book. If you want to experience first-hand the special joy and pain of being mixed race, Trethewey will lead you to understand. Any poetry collection that doesn't include Domestic Work isn't complete.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By "m_rughes"
Format:Paperback
"Domestic Work," by Natasha Trethewey, is the essence of well-crafted poetry. Each poem, of "Domestic Work," maintains delicate balances of "literal" meaning as well as "aesthetic" or "thematic" meaning. The thoughtful word choices, in Trethewey's work, depict vivid backdrops of sights, smells, textures and sounds. The well-chosen adjectives do not 'crowd' or distract from the themes -- both literal and aesthetic. With various foci and themes, the poems of "Domestic Work" truly beckon the reader to perform internal "domestic work" -- mentally, spiritually and emotionally.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Natasha Trethewey has won the Grolier Poetry Prize and her individual pieces have been widely published in a variety of places. Domestic Work is the debut collection of her poetry and will well serve to introduce her work to a whole new audience of appreciative readers. Housekeeping: We mourn the broken things, chair legs/wrenched from their seats, chipped plates,/the threadbare clothes. We work the magic/of glue, drive the nails, mend the holes./We save what we can, melt small pieces/of soap, gather fallen pecans, keep neck bones/for sou. Beating rugs against the house,/we watch dust, lit like stars, spreading/across the yard. Late afternoon, we draw/the blinds to cool the rooms, drive the bugs/out. My mother irons, singing, lost in reverie./I mark the pages of a mail-order catalog,/listen for passing cars. All day we watch/for the mail, some news from a distant place.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By M. Johnson
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've never been a big fan of poetry. While there are a few well written poems that I have understood and enjoyed in life, most just seemed like, um, gobbledy-gook on paper. Maybe this stems from the way we teach poetry in this country, but that's a topic for discussion on another day.
These poems of Natasha Trethewey's, though, really speak to me. After hearing an interview with the author my interest was picqued, and so I bought her Native Guard book. I enjoy the voices and points of view that I hear in those poems, but these in Domestic Work are very poignant. I can imagine a way of life that I know very little about, other than stories my great-grandmother told me when I was a little girl. Trethewey's imagery is superb - she creates portraits with her words, and then gives us a little more by telling us what SHE sees these characters doing right before and after this snapshot of the lives they lead. This book goes straight to the top of my (VERY short) poetry list.
These poems of Natasha Trethewey's, though, really speak to me. After hearing an interview with the author my interest was picqued, and so I bought her Native Guard book. I enjoy the voices and points of view that I hear in those poems, but these in Domestic Work are very poignant. I can imagine a way of life that I know very little about, other than stories my great-grandmother told me when I was a little girl. Trethewey's imagery is superb - she creates portraits with her words, and then gives us a little more by telling us what SHE sees these characters doing right before and after this snapshot of the lives they lead. This book goes straight to the top of my (VERY short) poetry list.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have long followed Natasha Trethewey's work in the literary magazines. Her signature style, a simplicity of syntax and vivid imagery fused with powerful voice, is one of elegance. Trethewey uses the historical, both History and personal history, as a means to bring the personal alive. Hers is not the rambling and rambunctious voice of the Confessional, and her voice rings more true because of that. A stellar student of rhetoric, Trethewey realizes that in order to bring the reader to understanding one must give the reader the means to see and feel (to encounter) and not simply confess. I am thrilled to have published poems by Ms. Trethewey in the past, including the final poem in this collection. She is one of the poets in her generation to whom I look for striking work. And time and time again, she delivers.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderfully lucid and evocative first book, with crystalline imagery, full-bodied pathos and sensuality. Ripe, earthy, plain-spoken beauty confirms this new poet's gifts, for lyric precision and emotional honesty, on every page.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Grapes
Format:Paperback
Natasha Trethewey, the poetess, writes a memory poem on every page. As I read each poem in "doMESTIC WORK, I realized these poems were memories and celebrations of hard working African Americans. The poems are so special and so beautiful I had to look at the poems in a personal way. Natasha Trethewey's poetry made me cry, smile, laugh and ponder my life. I remember my mother using Dixie Peach on my hair. To keep our kitchen cool while straightening my hair my mother kept the back door open. Every once in a while a cool breeze would come through the door. The cool breeze did not keep my mother from sweating. I would turn around and see the the beads of sweat on her upper lip. Our neighbors would say " she can fix some bad hair."
Natasha Trethewey, with her poetry, snapped a photo of the thoughts in my mind and the feelings in my heart. She also wrote about my mother's masectomy. I have heard no one describe how it felt to see my mother pin bundled handkerchiefs inside her dress to appear as her missing breast. My mother was not a complainer. Whatever she felt after that operation she did not share. She held it inside of her heart. I'm sure she must have cried at night in her pillow. She would never have wanted to worry my father. Indeed, Natasha Trethewey writes a memorable book of poetry. dOMESTIC WORK by Natasha Trethewey is a winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize.
Natasha Trethewey, with her poetry, snapped a photo of the thoughts in my mind and the feelings in my heart. She also wrote about my mother's masectomy. I have heard no one describe how it felt to see my mother pin bundled handkerchiefs inside her dress to appear as her missing breast. My mother was not a complainer. Whatever she felt after that operation she did not share. She held it inside of her heart. I'm sure she must have cried at night in her pillow. She would never have wanted to worry my father. Indeed, Natasha Trethewey writes a memorable book of poetry. dOMESTIC WORK by Natasha Trethewey is a winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nostalgia
These poems seem tense, circumscribed, hemmed in. Although not strictly speaking "nostalgic" they come too close. Read more
Published on February 4, 2002
1.0 out of 5 stars
Seems Beside the Point to Offer 1-Star, But...
This book annoyed me. It seems to be trying to do what Rita Dove's excellent earlier Thomas and Beulla did wonderfully. Read more
Published on June 6, 2001 by Joe Sullivan
1.0 out of 5 stars
Sorry For ONly One Star
I heard this author read recently. What struck me was how hard she was trying to "sell" these poems as she read, as if they appeal weren't apparent on their own, that... Read more
Published on May 6, 2001 by veronica trethaway
2.0 out of 5 stars
Something Off
Funny that there are two reviews here back to back about the creepy feeling one gets that this is a collection of politically correct poetry, which, in other words, means it's not... Read more
Published on April 28, 2001
1.0 out of 5 stars
Are Kidding Me?
Oh ok, so poetry now is anything that is about political correctness? This is artless, dull, self obsessed.
Published on April 16, 2001
1.0 out of 5 stars
Race Cannot Carry Poetry Alone
Here's an example of how a rush for publishers to seem multicultural can turn around and bite them in the rear. Read more
Published on February 4, 2001
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good...
This is well-written, honest poetry, with its own sound. Its pleasures are traditional, and no less satisfying for it. Read more
Published on September 27, 2000
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