Homecoming: New and Collected Poems

by Julia Alvarez

Homecoming is Alvarez's first published collection of poetry, a work of great subtlety and power in which the young poet returned to her old-world childhood in the Dominican Republic. Now this revised and expanded edition adds thirteen new poems. 

Long before her award winning novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents , and In the Time of the Butterflies , Julia Alvarez was writing poetry that gave a distinctive voice to the Latina woman and helped give to American letters a vibrant new literary form. These more recent writings are still deeply autobiographical in nature, but written with the edgier, more knowing tone of a woman who has seen, and survived, more of life. Wonderfully lucid and engaging, toned with deep emotionality and a wry observation of life, the poems of Julia Alvarez stand next to her fiction to both delight us and give us lessons in living and loving.

Genres: Poetry, Latinx, Nonfiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.

Photo copyright by Brandon Cruz González
EL VOCERO DE PUERTO RICO

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julia Alvarez has long been one of my favorite authors. I have reread her biographical How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent many times when I am in need of a laugh. The subject matter is nothing to chuckle at but Alvarez makes anything from mundane everyday matters to life changing events into comedic prose that brightens up my day. Before Alvarez became a prolific writer of novels, she made her name as a poet. Homecoming is her first published work. The themes she refers to in Garcia Girls are there: returning home to her native Dominican Republic, life as an immigrant in New York, embracing life as a feminist with traditional parents. Nothing fancy about these poems but they made Alvarez a published author, which lead to bigger and better things for her. I am happy to have read it as I now see where she started and how she has matured as a writer over the years. I savor all her words and I look forward to spending more time with the works of Julia Alvarez in years to come.

3ish stars

[Bookish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an alright read for me. A bit too tentative in quite a few of the poems. For instance, How I Learned to Sweep felt like there was a lot more to be said and I wanted that. Dusting, on the other hand, epitomized the Housekeeping series. I appreciated the sentiment behind her Housekeeping poems - trying to exist as a person outside the realm of domesticity and negotiating that with the mother/daughter relationship which seems to exists solely within that realm. I got the feeling of the mindlessness, suffocation and control of domesticity while reading these. And Orchids, did a good job of painting the pretty picture that its meant to be from the outside looking in, i think.

Heroines sees her continuing that journey but this time romance and the perceptions of romance serve as the predominant barrier. A bit of an anomaly in the series, Woman Friend, looking at the love and friendship between two women, takes a break from romantic love. 33 is interesting, her exploration of her humanity and its place in the world around her.

In terms of form, there's a bit of play here. Charges didn't really hold up.

On the whole, I might come back to this to reread a specific poem but ... its not a volume I hold dear.

[Jeff Hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

For no good reason, I've decided to try to read all the poetry books that the Playa Vista branch of the LA Public Library has. The chances that I actually accomplish this are not exactly high, but I like the project. Anyways, this is the first book from the Playa Vista branch that I read.

I didn't know Alvarez's work at all. The book is from 1984, then revised significantly for a new edition in 1996. Two sonnet sequences in the volume don't hold up very well, though there's also lots to like throughout. The title poem "Homecoming" has a satisfyingly layered narrative. "After Cinderella" seemed like just the right thing to read after the great results for women in the 2016 midterms. Its last lines really got me: "That some of us learned to go barefoot / knowing the mate to one foot is the other." Likewise to the end set for one of the sonnets in "Redwing Sonnets": "I tell you, I think half the fun (or more) / of being alive in the world is learning / the names of things so there are no things at all / left in the world, so that dying you know / exactly what you are leaving behind."

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection has one of my favorite poems, Against Cinderella. Alvarez provides a refreshing interpretation of the archetypal tale: "some of us have learned to go barefoot knowing the mate to one foot is the other."

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

My copy is falling apart from numerous readings. A nuanced volume that gives me something new every time I return.

[Melyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that these poems were about relatable things.

Read for reading challenge: poetry

[Tristan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Julia Alvarez's first book of poems, rereleased with a number of additions and some revisions and it reveals the remarkable talent that Julia Alvarez continues to display in her other books of poetry and fiction. Homecoming deals emphatically and meaningfully with a particular sensitivity even as (particularly in some of the additions) Alvarez shows her unflinching character and dedication to engaged poetry. "Folding My Clothes" and "Charges" in particular explore her difficult relationship with her mother and the poems of "Heroines"--particularly "Old Heroines"--are a fantastic look at the images given to women as models. From "Old Heroines":

Where do the heroines go when their novels are over?
If she's not married off, she gets on a train
and rides to the city to see her old lover--
though it's clear from the ending he has broken things off.
And as she is racing through Russia or Iowa
she looks out the window, the dark fields rolling by,
or maybe the night sky filling with stars. . . .
She sees her reflection, a face still dramatic,
pale and young in that afterward light.
She wonders, how long must I still play this part?

Each of these poems is filled with careful commentary on the world we live in, commentary that gets expanded in large portions of "33"--a sequence of 46, originally 33, sonnets that discusses atrocity, love, and expectation, alongside other themes. The sequence "Redwing Sonnets" is also fantastic--exploring the power and position of language--as are the longer closing and opening poems "Homecoming" and "last Night at Tia's" both of which look to Alvarez's experience as a Dominican American woman. From "Homecoming":

The workmen costumed in their workclothes danced
a workman's jig. The maids went by with trays
of wedding bells and matchbooks monogrammed
with Dick's and Carmen's names. It would be years
before I took the courses that would change my mind
in schools paid for by sugar from the fields around us,
years before I could begin to comprehend
how one does not see the maids when they pass by
with trays of deviled eggs arranged in daisy wheels.

Homecoming was a powerful and elegant collection of poems, highly recommended.

[Nd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julia Alvarez's autobiographic poetry is beautiful, familiar, revealing. Her introspection, observation, and attention to life's intracies are remarkable. In the early writing, her memories describe her mother's instruction in the proper way to perform tasks of daily life in their Dominican Republic home -- minute, repetitive, and necessary, but, more than a description, her own perspective reveals her state of being as a child. This wonderful insightfulness and depth continue throughout the phases of her maturation as she crafts poetry to reflect her assimilation of experiences. The first poetry she published at age 33 and the refinements and additional poems were published at age 45. The entire book is wonderful to read, right up through the Afterword.

[bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can get through the poems in a day or two. The 33 chapter, in my opinion, is the best one. The first third of the book -- on her mother and family -- is ok, but felt like she translated her experience instead of shared it. She recognizes and talks a little abt it in the afterword. (Also this was her first book so it makes sense that she hadn't found her full voice yet.) The sonnets at the end I think I need to read again.

[Sally Reardon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of poems dealing with the topics of domesticity, sex, dating, parental legacy and the experience of a female writer. I especially loved the section "Heroines". The poems spoke to me on a personal level as a woman, but I feel they would be enjoyable for a wider audience as well.

[Cynthia Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book of poems. Poetry is not normally my thing, but the poems were nicely written and flowed well. My favorite poem in the collection was Against Cinderella. The book is a quick, enjoyable read.

[Shelly]

a wonderful read

[Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection, a clear voice, and some wonderful lines that stuck with me. Definitely glad this was sitting around in a random English corner of the library in Hungary.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alvarez's first publication was first printed in 1984, but in 1996 she revisited her poems, added a few, and republished it into this version. At the time, she was 34, something she calls into question quite a few times in her poetry, and feeling rather young, unfulfilled, and certainly not living up to the expectations of her family. Finding solace in words, needing to be heard, she wrote about her childhood, snippets of life hardly thought about by most like cleaning or ironing, and breathed into a silhouette of memories.

Though her voice is hesitant in her poems, something I think she regrets a little later, it helps to fulfill that sense of youth forever captured in words. I think it lends a kind of innocence to her that is fractured by daily life, demands, and realities that don't exactly sit well with the way she wants to live her life. In a way, she even bucks the demands of her family and culture by writing her first publication almost exclusively in English, despite her Dominican heritage.

A solid set of poems, a good stint of perfectly framed pictures of a life not our own that also seems quite like our own.

[Keith Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I watched Alvarez become an important figure with the rise of contemporary Latinx writing in the 80s and 90s. Now it's hard to believe how radical some of that work felt then.

Although she was first a poet, her main contribution was in those early novels. But it is worth remembering that when she was writing these poems, there were very few Latina writers. Almost every time she wrote something, Alvarez was breaking new ground.

The poems are not difficult, and don't feel particularly angry in 2021. But there are still wonderful moments. For instance here are just a few lines from one of her sonnet sequences -- this one "Redwing Sonnets":

I tell you, I think half the fun (or more)
of being alive in the world is learning
the names of things so there are no more things at all
left in the world, so that dying you know
exactly what you are leaving behind.

[Tehnehn Kaijaah Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially I was not liking it due to not understanding all the clothes and cleaning and laundry allegories. Then I realized that I needed to read it from her perspective. It is her story after all, and then I started to really connect with it. "33" was probably my absolute favorite piece in the collection. The way she writes is just absolutely beautiful. It is like song lyrics really, her use of symbolism and her discussions of love were thought-provoking and equal parts heart-breaking. Definitely interested in reading more of her work.

[Greta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julia Alvarez is an exceptional poet and novelist. Homecoming is her first published collection of writing, poems & sonnets. She touches a wide range of feelings, continents, war, nazis, love, parents, travel and feelings,

[Lisajean · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s sweet, just not my taste.

[dianne b. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just the briefest moments of sweet, but mostly it feels like a writer on a schedule.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

"33" is absolutely magnificent (and you know it truly has to be for a person to use the word "magnificent"!) These poems of genuine expression are what my soul longs for. Thank you, Julia.

[Carrie Cantalupo-Sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry. So many of her poem spoke to me.

[Esther Domagalski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah this was epic unlike anything I’d ever read and it was a woman 33 my fav

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I was driving down the mountain, I had a job starting in a month, but nothing before that certainty, a gap I find I slip through if not careful and go mad."

This book is really more 3.5 stars for me.

While this is the first book by Julia Alvarez I've read it's clear that this is how she found her voice. Highlighting the contradictions and expectations of being a woman and telling stories about her family this is an interesting collection. It's authentic and makes you stop and think.

It's a nice collection for an easy afternoon read.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of simple, straightforward poems about life, family, and being female and growing up society's idea of what a woman should be.

from Dusting: "She erased my fingerprints / from the bookshelf and rocker, / polished mirrors on the desk / scribbled with my alphabets. / My name was swallowed in the towel / with which she jeweled the table tops."

from Woman's Work: "Who says a woman's work isn't high art? / She challenged as she scrubbed the bathroom tiles. / Keep house as if the address were your heart."

[Treasure Island Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry books have to be read one poem at a time. Poems should be savored. This book is full of flavor. I loved the first set of poems when she found her voice as a writer. The second set centered on her 33rd year and made me think about my most pivotal year. The later poems were, I think, added after the original publication of the book but were equally compelling. All in all, this is a poetry book I will revisit. Highly recommended.