Itch Like Crazy Contributor(s): Rose, Wendy (Author) |
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ISBN: 0816521778 ISBN-13: 9780816521777 Publisher: University of Arizona Press OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback Published: November 2002 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Poetry | Native American - Poetry | Women Authors |
Dewey: 811.54 |
LCCN: 2002006441 |
Series: Sun Tracks: An American Indian Literary (Paperback) |
Physical Information: 0.34" H x 6.04" W x 9.1" (0.43 lbs) 136 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Among Native American writers of mixed-blood heritage, few have expressed their concerns with personal identity with as much passion as Wendy Rose. A mainstay among American Indian poets whose work addresses these issues, she is a writer with whom readers of diverse ethnic backgrounds have consistently identified. In her latest work, Rose returns to these major motifs while exploring a new dimension: using poetry as a tool to delve into the buried secrets of family history--and all of American history as well. Confronting questions of personal history that itch like crazy--the irritations that drive human existence--she acknowledges and pays tribute to her Indian and European ancestors without hiding her anger with American society. Rose's poems are strong political and social statements that have a distinctly narrative flavor. Here are Europeans who first set foot on America's shores while Taino Indians greeted them as if they were visiting neighbors; Hopi and Miwok "Clan Mothers, grand-daughters, all those the missionaries erased"; and European forebears who as settlers pushed their way relentlessly west. Through her vivid imagery, she speaks to and for these ancestors with a sense of loss and an itching caused by the biases provoked by ethnic chauvinism. Itch Like Crazy is a finely crafted literary work that is also a manifesto addressing contacts and conflicts in the history of Indian-white relations. By presenting another view of U.S. history and its impact on the Native Americans who are her ancestors, it offers a new appreciation of the issue of "tribal identity" that too often faces Native peoples of the Americas--and is too often misunderstood by Euro-American society. |