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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The poetic blend of compassion and outrage that have marked Sonia Sanchez's political writing since the 1960s shines through this very personal account of a family's tragedy. The poems trace the story of Sanchez's brother: his alienation from his family, his struggle with HIV, and the family's eventual healing. Sanchez spins these lines in the voices of all the family members, as well as ancestors. The narrative takes on the elevated tone of Greek tragedy, or maybe the more solemn works of Wole Soyinka, and gives some sense of how overwhelming, painful, and powerful family bonds can be. June Jordan writes that this book joins Sanchez's "best poetry to her deepest feelings." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
One of our more overlooked older poets, Sanchez writes concise, wounded poems that work on the page as well as aloud. A tragedy of sorts written in terse terza rima, this short narrative poem mourns the poet's half-brother's death from AIDS. Borrowing techniques from Greek tragedy and African ritual storytelling and song, it has a section for each speaker: sister, brother, father, and chorus of ancestors. Permeated with the pain of abandonment?the abandoner's, as well as the victim's?the poem is a road map for the disintegrating family: "this father always a guest/ never a permanent resident of my veins/ always a traveler to other terrains." It fades into disembodied voices at the end, the brother's death being one terminus of the ancestral line. But it is the ancestors who offer strength and permanence because they have turned suffering into a stoical wisdom. Interesting and moving, if occasionally straining to make a rhyme, this book is recommended.?Ellen Kaufman, Dewey Ballantine Law Lib., New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
The poetic blend of compassion and outrage that have marked Sonia Sanchez's political writing since the 1960s shines through this very personal account of a family's tragedy. The poems trace the story of Sanchez's brother: his alienation from his family, his struggle with HIV, and the family's eventual healing. Sanchez spins these lines in the voices of all the family members, as well as ancestors. The narrative takes on the elevated tone of Greek tragedy, or maybe the more solemn works of Wole Soyinka, and gives some sense of how overwhelming, painful, and powerful family bonds can be. June Jordan writes that this book joins Sanchez's "best poetry to her deepest feelings." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
One of our more overlooked older poets, Sanchez writes concise, wounded poems that work on the page as well as aloud. A tragedy of sorts written in terse terza rima, this short narrative poem mourns the poet's half-brother's death from AIDS. Borrowing techniques from Greek tragedy and African ritual storytelling and song, it has a section for each speaker: sister, brother, father, and chorus of ancestors. Permeated with the pain of abandonment?the abandoner's, as well as the victim's?the poem is a road map for the disintegrating family: "this father always a guest/ never a permanent resident of my veins/ always a traveler to other terrains." It fades into disembodied voices at the end, the brother's death being one terminus of the ancestral line. But it is the ancestors who offer strength and permanence because they have turned suffering into a stoical wisdom. Interesting and moving, if occasionally straining to make a rhyme, this book is recommended.?Ellen Kaufman, Dewey Ballantine Law Lib., New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
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