An affecting set of poems about family, resilience, and moving forward.
A bilingual collaboration between several Mexican and Mexican American authors.
Ruiz describes this collection as a “poetry pulley” that “reel[s] in the poems made by rural poets with their friends, neighbors, co-workers and family,” including several Mexican immigrants and his own brother, who works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The poems are presented in both English and Spanish, with shared bylines between Ruiz and his collaborators and some of Ruiz’s solo work mixed in. Many of the 13 contributors—most of whom are identified by their first names only—work agricultural jobs; some lack documents, and a few survived human trafficking. The book’s various sections address the stress of migration, the anxiety of deportation, and the difficult reality of pursuing the American dream. One of the uses of poetry is to provide catharsis that journalism and even memoir can’t facilitate. Centavo, one poet, recounts selling cannabis as a child with a local gang to help his parents: “They would come and get me— / my backpack full and / it wasn’t just weed any more. I moved other shit: / Ten thousand pesos for one trip.” In another poem, David Ruiz (the author’s brother) grapples with his role as an ICE officer: “Imagine that you’re established here. You got / your kids to pick up from school. / You own two cars and / you got a job— / and I’m supposed to pick you up and send you back.” The starkness of the language makes the speakers’ surveys of past wounds feel even more acute. Some longer works braid several perspectives together, such as one that puts David Ruiz and multiple other contributors in conversation as two sides of an interaction at the Mexico–United States border. Ruiz’s solo works provide a sort of bridge, offering accounts of an experience between two worlds. The power in all these poems is not in their desire to convince, to cause guilt, or to inspire but in plainly laying out the many costs that one pays to live in America.
An affecting set of poems about family, resilience, and moving forward.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 9798985263220
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Pulley Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
A sweet bedtime story.
A boy and his stuffed bear head into the woods.
Having captured readers’ attention with Born a Crime (2016), his bestselling memoir of growing up in South Africa, comedian and television host Noah has written a parable about decision-making. As he puts it in a brief prologue, “It’s about disagreements and difference—but it’s also about how we bridge those gaps and find what matters most, whether we’re parents or kids, neighbors, gnomes, or political adversaries. It’s a picture book, but it’s not a children’s book. Rather, it is a book for kids to share with parents and for parents to share with kids.” With plentiful illustrations by Hahn and in language aimed at young listeners, it tells the story of a small boy so impatient to start his Saturday adventures that he rebels against the rules of his household and heads out without brushing his teeth or making his bed, despite the reminders of his stuffed bear, Walter. “We can’t just run away,” protests the bear. “Your mother will miss you. And where will we sleep? And who will make us waffles?” “We’ll build our own house,” the boy responds. “And we’ll grow our own waffles!” From there, the pair go on their walkabout, encountering a garden gnome, a pair of snails, and a gang of animated coins who have lessons to offer about making choices. Though the author suggests in the introduction that adult readers might enjoy the book on their own, those looking for a follow-up to the memoir or a foray into adult fiction should be warned that this is not that book.
A sweet bedtime story.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9780593729960
Page Count: 128
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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