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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Richie's Picks: THE FIREFLY LETTERS, May 23, 2010
This review is from: The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba (Hardcover)
In 1851, author and activist Fredrika Bremer spent three months in Cuba, traveling around the island with a young African-born slave who belonged to her hosts and who served as Bremer's translator. Drawing upon the nineteenth century writings and sketches of Fredrika Bremer, an early, important, and still relatively unknown figure in the women's rights movement, Margarita Engle has crafted THE FIREFLY LETTERS, a prose poetry dramatization of Bremer's time on the island.
The story is told in alternating poems by Fredrika, her young translator Cecilia, by Cecilia's husband, and by Elena the fictional daughter of Bremer's hosts, a twelve year-old growing up in wealth and privilege who often seems to have even less freedom than the slaves owned by her father.
It is when Fredrika leaves the confines of her host's home with Cecilia in tow (leaving young Elena stuck at home without companionship), and sets out across the island, that we come to grasp how the lively and rich culture that the slaves have brought with them contrasts so sharply with the strait-jacketed patriarchal society and customs from which Fredrika has escaped and to which Elena is a young, unwilling victim.
THE FIREFLY LETTERS is a sterling example of how less can so often be more. Good prose poetry -- like all good poetry -- relies on strategic employment of the right words to paint pictures. As with so many great poetry novels, there is so much payoff here and relatively few words.
I had not previously heard of Fredrika Bremer. I had no idea that Sweden and Denmark had enacted that legislation so far in advance of the U.S. I had no idea what Cuba was like 160 years ago. And, yet, in learning so much, I was able to read through this latest work by award-winner Margarita Engle in a very short amount of time, and then return to reread and savor a bunch of the poems I'd marked along the way.
I'm not the biggest fan of Women's History Month. (I don't like the idea that one of the twelve months is for women, arguably leaving the other eleven for celebrating the brilliant guys who seem to have always gotten us into these messes.) But, being that it is March, it does make good sense to line up a copy of this book asap.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Voices of the 3 women fit together like music, August 13, 2010
This review is from: The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba (Hardcover)
Before I even get to the book, let me just say, I love this cover. The artist behind it is Ana Juan Firefly Letters is written in free verse. Fredrika Bremer, was an author and she fought for the rights of women. In 1851 Bremer went to Cuba for three months. Engle read, Bremer's letters, diaries, notes and sketeches from that visit, The FireFly Letters is derived from that. ( I got all this lovely information from the historical note in the back of the book)
The Swedish consulate places Fredrika with a rich family in Cuba. The family has slaves. Cecilia, a slave (around 15 yrs old), is Bremer's guide and translator. 12 yr old Elena, is the daughter of the house. The story is told through these three women. Engle has given Cecilia's husband Beni, a few poems of his own. I like them, especially the first one. Though I do think Beni's poem messed with the rhythm of the story a little.
Cecilia
The huts of the freed slaves
make me think of my lost home
I remember a ghostly mist
rising over the river
after a boy drowned
trying to escape
from the slave traders.
The mist was silent
but the water sang softly
telling its own
flowing story
If I had known
that my father would trade me
for a stoloen cow
I would have run away
into the forest
to live in a nest
made of dreams
and green leaves.
Fredrika is against slavery and hates how women are treated in Cuba. Fredrika documented her trip in hopes of making people care about what was going on. With Cecilia as her guide Fredrika see much of Cuba. At night the two save fireflies, from the children who pull of their wings.
Elena watches from her window. Its 1851, and its not proper for a young girl to do, basically anything. Elena can only do as she is told. She longs for a little independence.
Engle's poems are beautiful. The voices of the three women fit together like music. The Firefly Letters was simply a pleasure to read.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The Firefly Letters (YA), October 16, 2011
This review is from: The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba (Hardcover)
This book, told in verse style, tells the story of Fredrika Bremer, a women's right pioneer. Fredrika travels to Cuba and realizes that slavery and women being controlled run rampant in Cuba. She begins to write about it and this book is based on her journals and letters. This book is told through Fredrika, her translator (who happens to be a slave) Cecilia, and a fictionalized rich girl whose family Fredrika is staying with named Elena. This book was a quick read. It was interesting to read about an area that I am not familiar with and about a person I did not know anything about. I enjoyed it.
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