Unthinkable Tenderness: Selected Poems (Paperback)

by Juan Gelman (Author), Joan Lindgren (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Chosen from the two collections of verse that Gelman wrote from 1971 to the mid-1980s, these poems serve to introduce U.S. readers to this leading Argentian poet. (His works have not been widely available here before.) Their themes arise from Gelman's own experiences: his Jewish heritage, the disappearance of his son and daughter-in-law during Argentina's Dirty War, his 20-year exile in Europe (he now lives in Mexico City), and his leftist revolutionary ideas. Imbued with anger and sorrow, often together ("I ate my portion of rage and sadness"), yet also at times poignant and brutal, as when recalling political imprisonment, these polymetric poems are capped by the heart-wrenching "Poem to My Mother" and the epistolary epilog to his unborn grandchild. A vivid testimony of an unsung voice who seeks in poetry the answer to and means of coping with suffering and with life. [In March, Gelman was awarded the national poetry prize of Argentina, the equivalent of U.S. Poet Laureate.?Ed.]?Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, Ohi.
-?Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Alone
Arte Poetica
Aunt Fran's Bunuelos
The Battle
The Battle
The Beauty Of All Creation
Certain Flights
Cherries
Children
Clarities
Commentary (saint Teresa)
Commentary 20
Commentary 6 (saint Teresa)
Confidences
The Cradle
Dampness
Deaths
The Deluded
An Exhibition Of A Few Paintings
The Expulsed
Flights
Graces
Handkerchiefs
I, Too, Write Stories
In Prison
Killing The General Defeat
Kingdoms
Letter To My Mother
Literatures
Nightingales Again
Noises
Note 1
Note 12
Note 17
Note 18
Note 20
Note 21
Note 25
On Poetry
An Open Letter To My Grandson Or Granddaughter
Open Letter: 13
Open Letter: 17
Other Writing
Pharmacies
Poetry Forever
Poetry Once More
The Prisoner
Psalm
Rain
Remembering Their Little Bones
Sayings
Sheets
Somata
Somewhere Else
Song
Song
Southern Latitudes
Southward
Still Harboring
The Table
They Are Waiting
They Say
They Wait
Tides
Truths
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 10
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 11
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 12
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 14
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 15
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 16
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 17
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 18
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 19
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 2
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 20
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 21
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 22
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 23
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 24
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 25
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 26
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 3
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 4
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 5
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 6
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 7
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 8
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat): 9
Under Foreign Rain (footnotes To Defeat):1.
Us The Poor
What They Don't Know
What Will Come To Pass
Women
You Are
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (March 21, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520205871
• ISBN-13: 978-0520205871
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #951,678 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A testament of love, loss, and exile, July 12, 2001

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Unthinkable Tenderness: Selected Poems (Hardcover)

"Unthinkable Tenderness: Selected Poems" is an important volume by Juan Gelman of Argentina. This collection has been edited and translated into English by Joan Lindgren, and features a foreword by Eduardo Galeano.

Gelman spent time in exile during a period of Argentine military dictatorship; his son and daughter-in-law disappeared under the dictatorship. Much of this book deals with these painful realities. The book includes a helpful chronology of the Argentine turmoil from 1966-95. Unfortunately, this is an English-only edition; I would have preferred a bilingual edition.

Many of Gelman's poems are dark and mournful. This is understandable, since many of them deal with such subjects as exile, torture, and assassination. There are also poems about love, and about poetry itself. I was especially moved by his series of prose poems that explore the psychological landscape of the exile. He writes, "I am a monstrous plant. My roots are thousands of miles from me and no stem connects us" (from "Under Foreign Rain" XVI).

This is a haunting and powerful volume. I highly recommend this book to those interested in Latin American poetry, literature of exile, and human rights.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem even in translation, July 24, 1998

By	M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Even in translation (although I wish this were a dual language book) a very distinctive use of repetition and very tight construction shines through. I would call the work less "political poetry" than "poetry of human relationships that have a political context". Even poems of anguish regarding the Argentine "disappeared", have a universality rather than a stridentcy. The poems include exquisite turns of phrase that make reading it a pleasure of waiting for the next magnificant phrase.