"In a language that is both frank and emotionally charged, this book wrestles with issues of family, race, religion, sexuality, and, more generally, the journey from innocence to hard-hearted experience. The poems, at times, disagree with one another in terms of tone and perspective, but this further clarifies the complexity of coming to grips with all that's inscribed in the American story. To grow up in a particular neighborhood, city, or country is to be all but blind to the many defining characteristics of the place, which seem natural as the sky"--
