Unthinkable Tenderness: Selected Poems
Chosen from the two collections of verse that Gelman wrote from 1971 to the mid-1980s, these poems serve to introduce U.S. readers to this leading Argentian poet. (His works have not been widely available here before.) Their themes arise from Gelman's own experiences: his Jewish heritage, the disappearance of his son and daughter-in-law during Argentina's Dirty War, his 20-year exile in Europe (he now lives in Mexico City), and his leftist revolutionary ideas. Imbued with anger and sorrow, often together ("I ate my portion of rage and sadness"), yet also at times poignant and brutal, as when recalling political imprisonment, these polymetric poems are capped by the heart-wrenching "Poem to My Mother" and the epistolary epilog to his unborn grandchild. A vivid testimony of an unsung voice who seeks in poetry the answer to and means of coping with suffering and with life. [In March, Gelman was awarded the national poetry prize of Argentina, the equivalent of U.S. Poet Laureate.?Ed.]?Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, Ohi.-?Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OhioCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.