Puerta del Sol [Paperback]

Francisco Aragon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2005

Francisco Aragón extends the map of Latino poetry in this bilingual collection. Taking its title from the central plaza in Madrid, it chronicles an overseas journey both public and private. Life in the capital—taking in jazz at a café after dark, navigating the underground landscapes of the Metro to and from work—is interwoven with the more interior realms of loss in poems that mourn a parent, retrace the steps of a late mentor, or express the collective grief borne of terrorism. The work, in essence, inhabits a seldom explored bicultural space; for Aragón the author is also Aragón the translator, shaping with his own hand Spanish versions of all these poems, thereby embodying the years he shuttled between his native California and his adopted Spain.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

These eloquent poems of mourning and memory move deftly, as in a beautiful grave sarabande, between Spain and San Francisco, past and present, enriched by what Francisco Aragón justly calls the "bilingual mirror" of his "corazón." Mono as well as bilingual readers will welcome them with admiration and pleasure. —Sandra M. Gilbert, author of Kissing the Bread

Francisco Aragón writes poetry that speaks with a quiet voice yet is rich with detail. But he also acknowledges the awkwardness of the life we all lead where, for example, the body starts unexpectedly to sweat. That he does not allow that awkwardness to move into the style itself speaks all the more for his skill. —Thom Gunn, author of Boss Cupid

About the Author

Francisco Aragón’s journal publications include La Calaca Review, Heliotrope, and Terra Incognita. He has also published in the anthology Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Literature from California (Heydey Books). He is the author of three chapbooks, most recently Tertulia (BOOKlyn). The founding editor and publisher of Momotombo Press, which supports emerging Latino/a writers, he is currently a fellow at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Bilingual Review Pr; Bilingual edition (March 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931010285
• ISBN-13: 978-1931010283
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #409,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving album of poetic memories., January 2, 2006

By 

A. G. White (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Puerta del Sol (Paperback)

If you like Cavafy, and I do, you will enjoy Aragon's poetry. These are poetic snapshots with depth. The specificity of the details (time, place, even the weather) gives the poems the authenticity of individual personal experience, but the emotional observations (love and loss, yearning and revulsion) speak to the universal human condition.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Little Mirrors Revealing Life's Complexities, March 24, 2005

By 

Daniel Olivas (West Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Puerta del Sol (Paperback)

Francisco Aragon's verse has graced the pages of several chapbooks and innumerable literary journals not to mention anthologies published by W.W. Norton, Heyday Books and Soft Skull Press. Aragon is also the founding editor and publisher of Momotombo Press which promotes emerging Latino writers and is housed at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame where Aragon is a Visiting Fellow. His talents at translation have been utilized for a half dozen books including those by the great Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Aragon's honors include an Academy of American Poets Prize and an AWP Intro Journals Project Award. With Puerta del Sol, Aragon offers us his first full-length book of poetry. And it is about time. Whether confronting terrorism on Spanish soil, memories of his late mother, or lamenting love lost, Aragon allows his images to travel from one continent to another, between English and Spanish, from hard, present tense reality to amorphous, malleable memory. Aragon's poems are stunning little mirrors that reveal the shimmering complexity of our lives and dreams. This is an eloquent collection that deserves attention. [The full review first appeared in Moorishgirl.com.]