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| View Larger Image | The Woman I Kept to Myself | Hardcoverby Julia Alvarez (Author)
| List Price: | $17.95 | |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Algonquin Books | | Page Count: | 176 Pages | | Publication Date: | January 04, 2004 | | Sales Rank: | 734,094th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
The works of award-winning poet and novelist Julia Alvarez are rich with the language and influences of two cultures: the Dominican Republic of her childhood and the America of her youth and adulthood. They have shaped her writing just as they have shaped her life. Since her first celebrated novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, she has been articulating the passions and opinions of sisters and aunts, mothers and daughters, heroines and martyrs. In The Woman I Kept to Myself, seventy-five poems that weave together the narrative of a woman's inner life, it is Julia Alvarez's own clear voice that sings out in every line. These are not poems of a woman discovering herself--Alvarez might say that's what her twenties were for--but of a woman returning to herself. Now, in the middle of her life, she looks back as a way of understanding and celebrating the woman she has become. And she hides nothing: from her early marriages to her late-in-life love, from the politics that informed her to the prejudice that haunts her still. Her fears, her accomplishments, and the ready humor that permeates even her darkest thoughts are all proffered to the reader. Perhaps the truest words to describe this remarkable collection are the two that give the last section its title: keeping watch. We are pulled into the intimate circle of a woman who keeps us company by sharing the stories and insights that we often keep to ourselves. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 5 reviews)
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A wonderful read! by Well Then (Jamaica)  5 Stars
July 18, 2009
I was given this collection as a gift a couple of years ago, and I read one or two of the poems, and then put it on my to-be-read shelf. Last week I retrieved the book and read the poems over the course of the week...out loud to myself. What a delight!
Each poem is thirty lines long, and divided into three stanzas. There were only a few times that I felt that the form overwhelmed the poem. Alvarez covers a range of subjects in her poems; she writes about trees, about her family, about growing up in the Dominican Republican and in America, about herself as writer, herself as woman, among other things. And all with an easy, insightful touch. I love her sense of humour, I love her voice, I love the way in which the poems reveal aspects of the woman she kept to herself.
This is a collection by a mature poet, looking at her life and celebrating it!
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Not for Me by Chris Rossi  1 Stars
July 07, 2009
The poems are not of a subject matter that I could relate to so they did not speak to my heart. I should have realized it would not be a good poetry book for me based on the person who recommended it to me. Oh well. What's a little more money wasted that I don't have?
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The Woman I Kept to Myself by Petit Chou (Portland, OR) 5 Stars
June 28, 2006
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.
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Finally, some well written poetry. by Jason Stahl (Nashville, TN) 5 Stars
December 01, 2005
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.
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An excellent investment of time.... by Raine Devries (Dallas, TX)  4 Stars
April 19, 2004
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.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| Before We Were Free (Readers Circle)
by Julia Alvarez (Author)
Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government’s secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition of el Trujillo’s dictatorship.
Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must overcome her fears and fly to freedom, leaving all that she once knew...
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| The Other Side / El otro lado
by Julia Alvarez (Author)
Characterized by respect for the past, delight in the sensory details of the present, and tentative but cherished hope for the future, a collection of poems culminates in the title poem about the poet's return to her native Dominican Republic. 15,000 first printing. Tour.
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| Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA
by Julia Alvarez (Author)
A “phenomenal, indispensable” (USA Today) exploration of the Latina “sweet fifteen” celebration, by the bestselling author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
The quinceañera, a celebration of a Latina girl’s fifteenth birthday, has become a uniquely American trend. This lavish party with ball gowns, multi-tiered cakes, limousines, and extravagant meals is often as costly as a prom or a wedding. But many Latina girls feel entitled to this rite of passage, marking a...
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| Saving the World (Shannon Ravenel Books)
by Julia Alvarez (Author)
Alma, the narrator of Saving the World, discovers a small historical footnote while doing research for a novel: In 1803, a Spanish doctor crossed the Atlantic with twenty-two orphan boys—live carriers of the smallpox vaccine—to inoculate the population of Spain's American colonies. Accompanying them on the two-year voyage was a mysterious woman, Isabel Sendales y Gómez, the rectoress of the orphanage. Captivated by Isabe'’s courage, Alma decides to tell the grueling story of their...
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| Finding Miracles (Readers Circle)
by Julia Alvarez (Author)
MILLY KAUFMAN IS an ordinary American teenager living in Vermont—until she meets Pablo, a new student at her high school. His exotic accent, strange fashion sense, and intense interest in Milly force her to confront her identity as an adopted child from Pablo’s native country. As their relationship grows, Milly decides to undertake a courageous journey to her homeland and along the way discovers the story of her birth is intertwined with the story of a country recovering from a brutal...
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