This collection of poetry is a great addition to the American immigrant experience shelf, in particular the Spanish-speaking, Latin American immigrant experience shelf, perhaps right next to Ana Menendez's "In Cuba I was a German Shepherd." It is a collection of carefully distilled observations and autobiographical confessions of growing up and being Dominican-American.

But do not be fooled, that's just a bit of what's in here. There is also a lot about being a writer, choosing words, working words, polishing and obsessing about words. Then what becomes interesting, at least to me, is that this particular collection contains poems that could have been written in paragraph format (some people refer to this as prose poetry, though there are different kinds, and this kind is certainly much much more prose than other prose poetry I have read) and you'd have a collection of half-page long diary entries or super short (flash) fiction. And I have not read all of Alvarez' poetry to know if she writes only like this or not, but this kind of prose poetry does not give me the impression that every word was obsessed over and every line was revised endlessly to capture that one particular way of saying something. So that can be amazing craft, or none at all, and in the end it does not matter. But it is certainly not the kind of poetry that you would have to read and re-read in amazement of how those words fit together to give you not a narrative but a feeling. This collection is much more about the narrative, some predictable, but very many surprisingly fresh. It is more about a few well-put words lingering as an afterthought once you are done with a poem. Apart from the immigrant experience and the writer's woes and joys, Alvarez explores family relations, marriage, nature, career woes (as can be applied to any career, not just writing,) and self-analysis.

I would recommend this collection to those who have trouble with poetry, those who think poetry does not make sense, those who claim "poetry is too hard." I would also recommend it to those who find solace in literature and poetry.