City Of a Hundred Fires (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

by Richard Blanco (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
It's easy to see why this debut won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Born in Madrid of Cuban parents and raised in the United States, Blanco captures the tensions of moving between cultures in rhythmic, evocative poems. Observed LJ's reviewer, "Blanco is already a mature, seasoned writer, and his powers of description and determination to get every nuance correct are evident from the first poem" (LJ 9/1/98).
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Review
324 Mendoza Avenue, #6
Abuela Valdes
America
Contemplations At The Virgin De La Caridad Cafeteria, Inc.
Crayons For Elena
Decima Guajira
El Cucubano
El Jagua Resort
El Juan
El Malibu
Found Letters From 1965: El Ano De La Agricultura
Havana 50s
Havanasis
Hola
Islamorada
La Bella Dama Of Little Havana
La Revolucion At Antonio's Mercado
Last Night In Havana
The Lesson
Letter To El Flaco On His Birthday
Los Santos Of The Living Room
Mail For Mama
Mango, Number 61
The Morning Kill
Mother Picking Produce
A Note About Sake
Palmita Mia
Partial List: Guantanamo Detainees
Photo Shop
Postcard To W. C. Williams From Cienfuegos
The Reservoir
The Road To Rancho Luna
Shaving
The Silver Sands
Teatro Marti
Tia Olivia Serves Wallace Stevens A Cuban Egg
Varadero En Alba
What Las Palmas Mean
Zafra
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

An exploration in verse of rites of passage within the Cuban-American sulture shows how a combined nostalgia for a lost world and a daily confrontation with American culture leads to self-awareness. -- Forecast, Bridgewater, NJ, February 1999

Blanco is a fine young poet, and this poetry, the bread and wine of our language of exile, is pure delight, written with Lorca's El Duende's eyes and heart.... -- Virgil Suarez

City of a Hundred Fires is one of the most exciting first books of the decade-vibrant and diverse, infused with energy and formal dexterity, equally at ease in Spanish and English.... -- Campbell McGrath

In this remarkable first book Richard Blanco speaks in a wise, compassionate voice that finds beauty in loss and takes bright lessons from despair. These are poems that hurt and heal. -- Gustavo Prez Firmat

Richard Blanco's City of a Hundred Fires lights up the American literary scene with a fresh new vigor and voice that takes its place in the front rank of poetry. This wonderful book will also draw readers from beyond the world of poetry, entrancing a wide audience with the music of its language, its beautiful evocation of love and loss and hope." -- Dan Wakefield

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Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; 1 edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822956837
• ISBN-13: 978-0822956839
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,044,667 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Voice, May 10, 2004

By A Customer

My tastes in poetry are usually kind of old fashioned. I was at the library to get a volume of Blake's poetry. The book I wanted wasn't on the shelf but Richard Blanco's was. I'm not sure what made me sit down and read it, what made me check it out from library, but I did. Blanco writes about a place and people I know little about, and yet his attention to place and relationships of all kind made me feel grounded in a real world, not an exoticized one. And I must admit, reading these poems made me think better of contemporary poetry.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hyphen Between Two Nations, April 21, 1999

By A Customer

Blanco's recent book, City of a Hundred Fires, designs to map the heart caught in a watery span between two nations-- the conflict and nostalgia of a Cuban growing up in Miami, and what that means to him and the people that surround him. While the poems are focused on a hyphenated experience (Cuban-American), Blanco manages to transcend this focus with writing that is concise and imagistic, honest and intelligent-- a style that allows the reader entry into the the poems, into the two hearts that give this book its beat. These poems take the reader from the shore of 1950's Cuba to the poet's own shaving mirror, from the imagined genesis of Cuba to the poet's childhood memories and desires. These poems ring true as the space between his two countries, between what's in the heart and how to write it down. Blanco is going to be a poet to watch!

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cienfuegos, December 27, 1999

By	Maria (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews

Richard Blanco's "City of a Hundred Fires" is rich and ripe with images and emotion. Voicing the experience of many hyphenated Cuban-Americans, Blanco captures the beauty of the every day, the pain of a displaced community of exiles and their strength and determination in tackling a new country. He celebrates their resilience and mourns their losses -- emotional, psychological and physical. Referring to Cienfuegos, Cuba, "City of 100 Fires" is a beautiful and moving collection of poems that I have shared with many and will always keep close to my heart.