Woman without shame Poems

Sandra Cisneros

Book - 2022

"...Woman Without Shame is a moving collection of songs, elegies, and declarations that chronicle her pilgrimage toward rebirth and the recognition of her prerogative as a woman artist. These bluntly honest and often humorous meditations on memory, desire, and the essential nature of love blaze a path toward self-awareness. For Cisneros, Woman Without Shame is the culmination of her search for home--in the Mexico of her ancestors and in her own heart."--Dust jacket flap.

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Subjects
Genres
poetry
Poetry
Published
New York : Alfred A. Knopf 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Sandra Cisneros (author)
Edition
First Edition
Physical Description
x, 161 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780593534823
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Cisneros (Martita, I Remember You, 2021) writes with irresistible intimacy, especially in her poetry. We feel confided in, teased, moved, and jolted as she explores matters earthy and spiritual. Cisneros is funny and lacerating, caring and mischievous. In this gathering of three decades of poems pithy and lush, brash and sexy, compassionate and outraged, she considers the places she's lived, family, lovers, neighbors, moments of wonder, injustices epic and personal, and the ways age can so rudely resculpt the body even while liberating the mind. Cisneros contrasts her journey-of-choice south from the U.S. to Mexico "with a truck hauling my library," to the plight of her grandparents in Mexico. "Who couldn't read, fled / North during the revolution," carrying few belongings. Everything glistens in street scenes, while nature is full of lessons offered by the "guru moon" and "inspirational ants." Cisneros seeks beauty and serenity, delighting in solitude and being happy "in bed with my love, a book." But she also offers stinging social critiques and frank and hilarious riffs on sex. This is a delectably saucy and incisive, righteous and resonant collection.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The introspective latest from Cisneros (Loose Woman) sweeps through her life with blunt observations and heartfelt prayers. The frequent use of Spanish words and fresh images of quotidian moments of life in Mexico ("when dawn arrives/ with her furious scent of bolillos,/ orange peels, and.../ Fabuloso" and "my heart... a peeled mango bearing an emerald housefly") act as both description and invitation. In short, lyrical poems, Cisneros juggles religion ("God Breaks the Heart Again and Again until It Stays Open"), humor ("I Should Like to Fall in Love with a Burro Named Saturnino"), and politics ("A Boy with a Machine Gun Waves to Me"). In keeping with the book's title, these poems bare her past in the more personal work about sex ("You Better Not Put Me in a Poem" begins with a list of images of previous lovers' penises: "a curved scimitar," "a fat tamale plug," and "a baby pacifier"), about almost dying ("Year of My Near Death"), and about aging ("This loss of the/ right ear's hearing,/ No cross.// I only half listen/ Anyhow.") These plainspoken, affecting poems reveal a writer fortified by a sometimes difficult past who has come to embrace the freedom that comes with self-acceptance. (Sept.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Novelist Cisneros's (The House on Mango Street; Loose Woman) new collection of poems--her first in nearly three decades--explores womanhood, her ancestry, and humanity. Cisneros narrates her own work, allowing listeners to hear these poems as they were meant to be read. The poems are at turns humorous, emotional, and haunting. The narration is often musical, conveying the rhythm and flow of Cisneros's cadence. A few poems are in Spanish, but Cisneros's emotive delivery emphatically communicates meaning, even for those who don't speak the language. The poems flow together, encompassing the poet's life from her experiences as a young woman to her contemplations of aging and death. While the poems describe Cisneros's personal history, they also provide a powerful window into what it means for women to live for themselves and dispense with cultural and societal expectations. The author's note gives more insight into Cisneros's writing process, both as a novelist and as a poet, as well as her search for and acceptance of life. VERDICT This luminous collection from a treasured writer is a must-listen and a necessary addition to every poetry collection.--Elyssa Everling

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