My Nature is Hunger: New and Selected Poems, 1989 – 2004 [Paperback]

Luis J. Rodríguez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

My Nature is Hunger is the first poetry collection in five years by this major award-winning Latino author. It includes selections from his previous books, Poems Across the Pavement, The Concrete River, and Trochemoche, and 26 new poems that reflect his increasingly global view, his hard-won spirituality, and his movement toward reconciliation with his family and his past.

Though Rodríguez is the most authentic voice of the barrio, many reviewers have commented on the universality of his work.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Whether he's writing fiction, essays, children's books, or poetry, Rodriguez, an activist as well as an artist and the son of Mexican immigrants, writes of the anguish and anger, determination and revelation experienced by individuals driven from one world and not welcomed in another, and those who are maligned and marginalized for their ethnicity even in the country of their birth. Following his first novel, Music of the Mill (2005), this haunting retrospective volume gathers selections from Poems across the Pavement (1989), The Concrete River (1991), and Trochemoche (1998) and presents more than two-dozen deeply affecting new poems. Beginning with a border-crossing poem, "Running to America," and ending with "The Wanton Life," a wrenching yet empowering poem to the poet's imprisoned son, this potent volume embraces the tough life of the barrio and the transcendent life of the spirit. Rodriguez also writes resoundingly of the lies and tragedy of war, the strength of women, and the beauty of the earth, and he parses the absurdities of life with knowing humor. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

This poetry is of the barrio yet stubbornly refuses to be confined in it-Rodríguez's perceptive gaze and storyteller's gift transport his world across neighborhood boundaries."-Publishers Weekly on Trochemoche

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Curbstone Books (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931896240
• ISBN-13: 978-1931896245
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,575,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis J. Rodriguez began writing in his early teens and has won national recognition as a poet, journalist, fiction writer, children's book writer, and critic. Currently working as a peacemaker among gangs on a national and international level, Rodriguez helped create Tia Chucha's Café & Centro Cultural, a multiarts, multimedia cultural center in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read!, July 25, 2006

By 

Marie C. Lecrivain "executive editor, poeticd... (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: My Nature is Hunger: New and Selected Poems, 1989 – 2004 (Paperback)

"My Nature is Hunger" reveals a turning point in the continued maturation of Rodriguez as a poet and visionary. The acuity of Rodriguez is still there, but now it is the marked difference between a steak knife, and a scalpel.