AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SO-AND-SO: Poems in Prose
Maurice Kilwein Guevara, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SO-AND-SO: Poems in ProseOver the course of 46 prose pieces centering on the speaker's life lived alternately in Colombia and the United States, Guevara works up a self-portrait in which each tale builds off the previous to make an accumulative, unflinching music. The "so-and-so" who emerges in this third full-length collection is a figure who straddles a fence between Latino and American identity, between childhood and adulthood, between First-World amenities and developing-world poverty: "We're stopped on the road from Belencito to Bogotá. In the convex sphere of an owl I see my six-month-old body cramping and weak in my mother's arms. My brothers are asleep next to us in the back seat. It's April, the rainy season." Rather than attempting to reconcile the contradictions of the beautiful and grotesque, Guevara allows soot, mud and blood to exist beside "almonds of gold," "that copper synapse" and "my father's box of books" so that the reader is all the more aware of the indivisible pleasures of the visual world. Surreal realpolitik ("In Quito, he becomes the head of the opposition party because the poor are in love with his long, beautiful hands") infiltrates religious, sexual and familial relations, and economic reflections drive the indelible imagery. As in Postmortem
and Poems of the River Spirit , Guevara's attention to organic cycles of growth and decay infuses the poems with a tenebrous resonance that always comes ineffably back to earth: "The moon, a corroding disk, streaks down on a filthy miner, sitting, a masked coon at his feet." (Apr.)
Forecast: The powerful storytelling and nuanced imagery of these cross-cultural imaginings should draw acclaim if given review attention. Larger houses looking to expand their lists will find Guevara's work a good, challenging fit.
closeDetailsReviewed on: 04/16/2001
Genre: Poetry
Over the course of 46 prose pieces centering on the speaker's life lived alternately in Colombia and the United States, Guevara works up a self-portrait in which each tale builds off the previous to make an accumulative, unflinching music. The "so-and-so" who emerges in this third full-length collection is a figure who straddles a fence between Latino and American identity, between childhood and adulthood, between First-World amenities and developing-world poverty: "We're stopped on the road from Belencito to Bogotá. In the convex sphere of an owl I see my six-month-old body cramping and weak in my mother's arms. My brothers are asleep next to us in the back seat. It's April, the rainy season." Rather than attempting to reconcile the contradictions of the beautiful and grotesque, Guevara allows soot, mud and blood to exist beside "almonds of gold," "that copper synapse" and "my father's box of books" so that the reader is all the more aware of the indivisible pleasures of the visual world. Surreal realpolitik ("In Quito, he becomes the head of the opposition party because the poor are in love with his long, beautiful hands") infiltrates religious, sexual and familial relations, and economic reflections drive the indelible imagery. As in
Reviewed on: 04/16/2001
Genre: Poetry
