The Woman I Kept to Myself (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Author of the popular novels How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies, Alvarez continues to explore themes of cultural difference and personal experience in her new collection of poems. The book, which marks her fourth collection of poetry, comprises 75 poems of 30 lines each; the formal constraint is an organizing principle for these sometimes meandering autobiographical poems. A good many poems explore her development and status as a writer, specifically as a Latina: "Even I, childless one, intend to write/ New Yorker fiction in the Cheever style / but all my stories tell where I came from." The midsection of the book, "The Woman I Kept to Myself," roams from nostalgic reflections on childhood birthday presents to meditations on eating disorders to speedily resolved family conflicts to personal, and worldwide, losses: "Why did it take so long? Mom and Dad's deaths/ a friend's cancer, a cousin's accident/ the Twin Towers, the war on innocents...." Seeing the first signs of spring sets the world to rights again: "Then suddenly, a daffodil, a patch/ of crocuses... and back into the intact Towers flew/ stick figures, like a film in reverse." Most poems here arrive at similar recastings of hard truths; often, however, one feels that both sides of the equation are too easily won, drawing close to cliche and facile reconciliation: "I've woken to the world just as it is," she writes, "and that's enoughâ€"in fact, more than enough."
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From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–This tightly structured collection of 75 poems is divided into three sections, and each poem has three stanzas, exactly. Alvarez's voice, however, is as free and strong as the free verse she composes. The poet, who is from the Dominican Republic, writes about being raised with her sisters in New York. The subjects are personal–love, marriage, rejection, divorce, death, religion–but also universal. She says in "Why IWrite," "Unless I write things down I never know what I think, no less feel." This book will appeal to readers not only for the eloquence with which Alvarez describes her feelings and discoveries, but also for the humor. In "Abbot Academy" she notes that as a schoolgirl she found that ladies "…learned to be blondies even if they were dark-haired, olive-skinned, spic-chicks like me." Readers who enjoyed How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1992) or In the Time of the Butterflies (1995, both Plume) will love her poetry. Teens approaching adulthood will appreciate the poet who turned to "paper solitude" and through many drafts discovered "the woman I kept to myself."–Sheila Janega, Fairfax County Public Library, Great Falls, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (January 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565124065
• ISBN-13: 978-1565124066
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #745,542 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent investment of time...., April 18, 2004

By	Raine Devries (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

I have never been a huge fan of poetry; however, when I found out I was going to have the opportunity to meet Julia Alvarez at a reception I was planning, I read this book. It is thoroughly engaging and every time I picked it up I had a hard time putting it back down. If the eyes are the windows to someone's soul, these poems are Ms. Alvarez's virtual eyes for us to gaze into. In closing, if you have an opportunity to attend a reading with Ms. Alvarez, I highly recommend it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, some well written poetry., December 1, 2005

By	Jason Stahl (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After being frustrated by a number of poorly written books of poetry, this book fell into my lap. Not only did I enjoy this book, but I am sure to read everything else published by Julia Alvarez. A highly recommended read for anyone. Her poems are deep and thoughtful and cover a variety of topics.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Woman I Kept to Myself, June 28, 2006

By	Petit Chou "petitchou777" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

I love Julia Alvarez's other books, especially "In the Time of the Butterflies." This is her newest book, a book of poetry. You can see how these poems reflects the author and they really touched home with me. I read and reread the poems and found pieces of myself in almost each one. I have marked the ones that mean the most to me and return to read them often.