Yesterday I Saw the Sun: Poems [Hardcover]

Ally Sheedy (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 140 pages
• Publisher: Summit Books; First Edition edition (February 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671731300
• ISBN-13: 978-0671731304
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Raw, gutsy in its honesty, Ally Sheedy lets it all hang out., July 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Yesterday I Saw the Sun: Poems (Hardcover)

Emotionally raw and free of standard poetic justifications Ms. Sheedy delivers to us in quite simple honesty all the angst and despair of addictions and cages, both those placed upon her and those she's adopted as her own. Some passages are haunting, giving me cause to pause and wonder if she had lead specific moments of my own life, and undoubtedly moments from scores of others. I applaud this work, not completely on artistic merit, but more importantly for its depth and the author's ability to convey to us, the average reader, what an unsettled existence all the so-called riches of life can bring. I look forward to reading her next volumn.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest....but heartbreaking, February 4, 2005

By 

Joanne A. Garland "Isabelle Huppert's #1 fan" (Midwest, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yesterday I Saw the Sun: Poems (Hardcover)

The publisher claims that this book is "a work of fiction".
If only that were the case. Then the contents in it wouldn't break your heart. Save for her poem on abortion ("Local Anesthesia"), I believe everything to be true, based on her own experiences. It is obvious to me that there is no role she can play whose life experiences would be more horrific than her own. Ally's poems on domestic violence give you a vision of pure hell.
She is a survivor. She gives a new definition to the word. If you are a fan then this book is a must. Your heart truly will be extended to her as you read her book. And when you watch her movies you will look at her with heartfelt compassion. This is the affect that it has had on me. Be prepared to cry.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest confessional about the perils of self-destruction., June 15, 1998

By 

Daeva [e-mail] (Detroit, Michigan (unfortunately)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yesterday I Saw the Sun: Poems (Hardcover)

Intially I read the book my senior year in high school when it first appeared in 1991. I still adhere to my original opinion and find the work painfully raw which in most cases would drown the message out in other books, but here in so few pages is a honeycomb; filled with both the sting of life's hardships and the rich of their rewards. Where most poets would leave off their insecurites and misfortune, by cleverly disguising with metaphore and carefully constructed phrases. This poet manages to create out of a lifetime more than just a story but a journey of the lonely pilgrimage in which we all quest. There's an overwhelming sincerity in each line, granted there is no regard to basic poetic structure but only a scholar would notice. Most people who have read the book would enjoy what I enjoyed about it: human struggle.