The Woman I Kept to Myself

Easily one of the best books I have ever read across all genres. Her language is a living thing, spring loaded in a way that kept me turning pages with anticipation for the next vignette, only to find myself heading back to the last verses I read in order to slow down, savor and reassess.I love the way she talks about poetry: “Often I crack and poetry seals the crack” and “I’m buoyed by poems that spring upon my lips / like prayers mothers whisper over cribs” (both from “Life Lines”). When told to write a poem about her new grand baby, she tells the newborn girl, “I know real poetry when I see it” (“Grand Baby”). Wonderful stuff.And I love how she uses language. From the way she tells us that her tía’s voice is “thick and sweet like boiled-down sugarcane” (“Family Tree”), to her enthusiasm at the arrival of spring: “Each morning I wake up and run outdoors to check the stingy inching of the grass” (“Spring, At Last!”)Then there is this lovely way she uses different trees to help tell her story, from her transplant to NYC from the Dominican Republic (“Samán” and “Family Tree”) to her father’s distress at his family’s circumstances in their new home (“Weeping Willow”; I love this line; “Amid the noise of traffic and English, / it was a silent world – till Papi cried”). In “Maple, Oak, or Elm,” she compares her growing understanding of love to learning how to distinguish between the different trees as a young girl. Then in “Locust,” as she gains love and marries, she plants these same trees in her new home, comparing her life to the aimless, accidental growth of a tree: “We have to live our natures out, / the seed we call our soul unfolds over the course / of a lifetime and there’s no going back / on who we are—that much I’ve learned from trees.”And there is so much more. Get this book. Read it twice.

Julia Alvarez who writes novels, books for children and poetry excels in this new volume of poetry. She 'invented' a new form. Each poem has 30 lines, 75 poems in all. Many are reflective of her writing career. Having moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic at the age of ten, her life has been well-chronicled in her previous books. She writes movingly about either culture.This volume shows how she has matured. In a previous one she wrote 30 sonnets when she turned 30 years old. For the most part it was more light-hearted. Her work is inventive and original. Other poets will appreciate her musing about other well-known poets who inspire her. It is frank and honest and a pleasure to read.

I am new to reading poetry. Most of it is difficult for me to follow. So when a friend sent me this book after a glowing review of Alvarez's fiction, I was curious to see what kind of poetry she wrote.I loved it! This was the first book of free verse poetry that I've read that I understood every single poem. Alvarez has the ability to make you feel like you are taking a peek at her life without divulging too much. Her poems made me feel like I understood what free verse was about. They all had nice rhythm and beauty. This positive experience has led me to purchase another book of her poetry as well as purchase a second copy of this book for a friend.

As a Dominican American woman, Alvarez's work is deeply relatable. I utilized this book for a series of comparative essays I had to write for my English Comp class, having to do with feminism and cross cultural assimilation. I love her work, this was obviously different because it's not an actual narrative, but through it you get a stronger sense as to who Alvarez is and the influences behind all her work. Wish it was longer, but I can't complain. Her poems really hounded the subjects I was focusing on, those which are universal to immigrant women in America.

I should first say that the order was easy to place and arrived promptly as promised.As to content, Alvarez is refreshing and distinctive voice. Her poety, like her historical fiction and 'memoirs' bring to vivid life the Latina experience both in her home country and as an immigrant girl to the US. She spares us little of the hardship and the brutality of the history, but has a wondrously upbeat vision of herself and her family. She uses humor generously, often with straight faced satire, or sly comments.Being a big fan of her myself, I bought this volume as a gift for my 14 year old granddaughter, who is a new explorer of adult poetry.

This isa very personal narritative told through poetry of one woman's experience, growing up from a hispanic/latino background in the streets and cities of America. It is a story of a female bilateral-divided in half by speaking two different languages and experiencing two very different cultures. Both mostly her poems are filled with beautiful use of langauge. Her poetry isalso filled with one more key element. The element of Hope. Hope leaps off the pages, as you read the different well written poetic verse. I would reccommend this book to anybody who loves a good poem, but especially to young women, teenagers even, because her poems contain not only hope but strength as well.

I kissed my kindle after reading this masterpiece. I feel like Julia Alvarez gave us a personal honest look at herself, beautiful and multidimensional, and conveyed her world artistically as a writer and honestly as a human being. thank you. ten stars for sharing her talent.