The Gift That Arrives Broken [Perfect Paperback]

Jacqueline Berger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

In her third book Jacqueline Berger surveys the terrain of mid-life, keeping her own youth clearly in view along with the decline of her aging parents. Her perceptions about the hungers of body and mind, striking in their candor, are couched in language that honors and deepens the losses, even as it uncovers the gifts to be found in brokenness...her steady gaze is keen and loving. --Chana Bloch

Reading The Gift That Arrives Broken, I kept asking myself: what is the magic that makes these poems of a quiet, ordinary life, with small sensuous pleasures, and the tracking of a father's gradual decline toward death, so compelling? Is it the understated wisdom, the graceful compassion toward the self and others...Is it the precision of description, is it the amused memories of the self at sixteen, dropping acid and tearing up money, or the amused speculation about a girl with a baby at a crafts fair selling goddess magnets...This is an art that is centered everywhere. It brought me closer to my own center, and it will bring you, whoever you are, closer too. --Alicia Ostriker

About the Author

Jacqueline Berger is the author of two previous books of poetry, Things That Burn, winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize, University of Utah Press, and The Mythologies of Danger, winner of the Bluestem Award and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. Her poetry has also appeared in numerous journals including The Iowa Review, River Styx, and New Millennium Writings. She teaches creative writing and directs the graduate program in English at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California. She was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in San Francisco with her husband.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Autumn House Press (January 10, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932870369
• ISBN-13: 978-1932870367
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Gift that Arrives Broken, January 25, 2011

By 

Zach Hudson (Troutdale, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gift That Arrives Broken (Perfect Paperback)

Jacqueline Berger's poetry is the poetry of everyday life, through which some insight--sometimes transcendental, sometimes merely intriguing--is seen. This poetry doesn't have an agenda, isn't part of a movement, does not aspire to revolution. Each poem is a short personal essay. I suppose you could call it "Flash Non-Fiction", though most poems are longer than such a genre would indicate. It reminds me in ways of David Sedaris's writing, but more brief, and not as constrained by the need for cohesion. Berger is free to connect seemingly dissimilar thoughts or observations and watch the light refract off of them. Also, she is not a humorist--the comparison to Sedaris has more to do with her ability to make keen observations based on everyday life in skillful essay-style prose. Aging, marriage and family are frequent subjects. Berger's meditations on the illness and inevitable death of both of her parents are so prominent a focus that it became a motif of the collection, but Berger's treatment is neither morose nor lugubrious. In "My Mother's Refrigerator", for instance, Berger contrasts her desire to clear with her mother's pack-rat tendencies. The result is touching:

[...]
My mother tells me it's okay.
I sweep the crumbs, stack
the papers she won't toss.
Some day they'll be mine
to do with as I wish.
And the food will be mine
the encrusted, the furred,
apples that soften to their end,
lamb that hardens.
I'll want to keep it all
just to keep the argument alive.

I appreciate the fact that Berger's stylistics are not the focus of her poetry. Her prose is pure, and not a hodge-podge of warped syntax. This allows her to be clear, accessible and poignant. One of the things that I liked the most was how in many poems, she brings up a thought or image and comes back to it at the end, whereupon it has new significance. It's not a "twist" at the end, but more of a "click": you suddenly understand why this particular image is so important. Here's an example:

At the Table

Those who practice moderation,
their faces mild and benign,
their plates cleared away
with half their dinner remaining,
don't believe every meal is their last,
but even if this one is,
they're fine leaving some of it untouched.
Then there are those of us who order the bottle
because the best wines
aren't offered by the glass.
We share dessert, but share two of them
because we love both chocolate and plums.
Our off switch doesn't work, Lisa says,
and the next day's punishment of pleasure
is just part of the bargain.
Her dog tosses a stuffed snake across the room
in the gleeful dance dogs do to celebrate a visitor.
He's a big dog, mastiff and pit bull,
scary looking with gold eyes
which makes me want to trust him
the way I'd give a thug a second chance.

Joy may be ephemeral
as the full moon swaying on an alpine lake,
but we are like the villagers
in the fairy tale I read as a child
who thought they could scoop
a chunk into their bowls and eat it.
The author intended his young reader
to understand the foolishness of this,
but I loved the villagers,
up all night with their slotted spoons
digging in the milky water.
Maybe they pulled buns from wicker baskets
and shared them with their neighbors,
the floury moon, the custardy moon
one way or another filling their mouths.

The body is a source of joy
but also the servant.
We feel no compunction
keeping it up all night
then calling the the morning for a favor.
And desire is a dog
that's bred to kill,
but we let him in the house
and love him.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, June 16, 2010

By 

A. Pappas (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gift That Arrives Broken (Perfect Paperback)

The Gift that Arrives Broken is a compelling collection of poetry. Berger discusses family and relationships in frank, sensual, and intimate language. I felt like the poet was speaking directly to me in conversation. The poems are easily accessible but by no means simple. I would highly recommend this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gift that heals, February 4, 2010

By 

Lorrie Carter (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gift That Arrives Broken (Perfect Paperback)

Jacqueline Berger speaks to your heart in this volume of poetry that inspires love, joy, and hope as a family survives even through loss.