Part I: Bibliographic information
Type: Poetry
Title: 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East
Writer: Naomi Shihab Nye
Copyright Date: 2002
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 0060097663
Genre/subgenre: Young Adult/Poetry
Interest Age: 11 +
Reading Level: Upper Grades (UG 9-12)
Pages: 142
Awards: National Book Award Finalist
Part I: Reader’s Annotation, Plot Summary, Critical Evaluation
Reader’s Annotation -- This collection of poems about the traditions, people and challenges of the contemporary Middle East are written by a Palestinian-American woman whose father encouraged her understand and experience her heritage first hand through visits to the homeland and close bonds to her Arab family members. Aimed at a younger reader, Nye’s graceful imagery and loving portrayal of Arabic traditions, places and people is a memorable testament to the importance of cross-cultural understanding.
Plot Summary -- Nye’s introduction is proceeded by a poem titled, Flynn, On a Bus. The poem describes the day a prisoner is released after having served time for some unnamed crime. The date is Sept. 11, 2001, which corresponds to the bombing of the World Trade Center though this fact is not stated except as “on his long-awaited day, what twist of rage greater than we could ever guess had savaged skylines.” The significance of the correlation is not stated either except we can connect his rage -- and desire to control it from here forward -- with the rage that perhaps lead to 9/11’s violence. This is the subtle approach that characterizes the entire collection of poems in 19 Varieties of Gazelle.
Nye talks in her introduction about her mixed heritage that kept one foot in America and the other worrying, thinking about and visiting the Middle East as a young person. She like to write things down and remembers details that even her grandfather would later forget he had shared. It makes for a wonderfully rich view of the world she has known -- in which we can almost taste the lemons and olives and feel the gazelles, which are associated with grace in Arab culture, gather in the clearing of a zoo she visits.
What we are treated to are several dozen glimpses into this world that Nye has seen via her travels and through her family bonds. Her grandmother, a woman of simple habits and with little patience for politics, is lovingly portrayed as a root to her heritage. She is a woman who lived to 106 and never left Palestine. In Stain, Nye portrays her as a patient, accepting woman who never gives up the effort to remove the stains from their close with a stone. Her father is the contrast to the old world as he is a worldly, educated man, who is comfortable blending his Arabic background with a career as an academic in America. The poem Arabic Coffee in which ‘Papa’ ritualistically makes tray of coffees for his family is a wonderful tribute to the civility of the Arab male. There are others rich in imagery and character that certainly stand out as unique and worthy of the accolades that she has earned in time for her work that foremost encourages understanding between two cultures that have too often been at odds.
Critical Evaluation --
Poetry is sometimes a difficult medium to decipher for all ages but in particular for young adults who may not be familiar with their lucid character or subtle references. Nye’s poetry is written free verse so she is quick to deliver phrases that impart meaning effectively. “The coffee was the center of the flower. Like clothes on a line saying you will live long enough to wear me, a motion of fate” (Nye, Arabic Coffee, p. 39). The reader gets a strong sense of place through her references to foods, customs and people of the Arab background and world. Some of these images are nostalgic and beautifully crafted. Others reflect on the heart-wrenching reality that has brutalized a people and land through decades of war and oppressive living conditions. The umbrella over these broadly collected poems is that they all touch on the Middle East and its varied cultures in a way that lends a face and lifestyle to the people she so gracefully portrays -- a people who have often been too often only understood through a bloodied photo in a magazine or via some ghastly headlines. Nye’s use of the poetic medium to address the cultural gap that exists between America, her second home, and the Middle East, her other home, is a standout example of the power of a genre -- poetry -- that is too little directed at or read by young adult readers.
Several things are worth mentioning about the collection. First, this is not poetry watered down for young adult consumption. In fact, you might argue there’s not much that makes this poetry exclusive to young adults except that the book is marketed thus. It’s well-crafted free verse poetry with powerful, engaging imagery likely to capture a reader’s interest of any age. Second, there is no particular method of organization internally except that she has made a Section I and Section II, which are not equal in size (the former is considerably longer) nor distinct in content -- this quality is somewhat confusing but it does not halt the reader but rather pushes us forward wondering where the mix of beauty and brutality will lead us. Section one contains more of the poems about her family members, which are the backbone of the collection -- the grandmother, the uncle, her father, her cousins all provide a lovely experience of familial pride. Two has a few openly anti-war and pro-humanitarian pieces beginning with the grace and innocence of the gazelles as described in the book’s namesake, 19 Varieties of Gazelles. The other aspect of the collection relates to the injustice and futility of violence and war. These poems are an important aspect of the work in that they leave the reader -- who is likely to be a Westerner -- with a deeper sense among many Arab people that war has cost them dearly and scared them deeply.
Part III: Author Info
“Naomi Shihab Nye was born on March 12, 1952, in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she lived in Ramallah in Palestine, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she later received her B.A. in English and world religions from Trinity University,” according to Poetry.org’s biography of Nye (Naomi, n.d.).
Poetry.org summerizes her professional achievments as follows: “Nye has received awards from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Carity Randall Prize, the International Poetry Forum, as well as four Pushcart Prizes. She has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow. In 1988 she received The Academy of American Poets' Lavan Award, selected by W. S. Merwin” (Naomi, n.d.).
Part IV: Curriculum Ties, Diversity, Booktalk Ideas, Challenge Issues
Curriculum Ties, if any -- There are a number of context educationally in which it might be incorporated in whole or part, including English literature, social studies and even geography as Nye describes several regions of the Middle East.
Diversity of Cultures -- Multicultural perspectives should include a broad variety of voices and this work is on from an expressive, thoughtful Arab-American voice.
Booktalking Ideas -- This story focuses on
Challenge Issues -- This works provides offers some insight into the rage that fuels the Arab extremism. While Nye certainly mourns and openly condemns acts of violence, this does not offer the traditional Western perspective on Islamic culture. In fact, it challenges some of the stereotypes and forces us to think about what drives the extremism. So I can see that it might be objected to by those who perspective on the political conundrum that is the Middle East tends to blame the Arabs for their own fate.
Part V: Reasons chosen
Poetry is a genre that gets too little exposure in my view. High schools teach it mainly as Shakespeare or similar and few young people are exposed to this powerful means of communicating. I considering it an important component of literature because it delves into our emotional wellsprings and subconscious undercurrents in a way that other forms do not. This allows us to wear a different set of spectacles when addressing a subject matter as controversial as Arab-American relations. It’s also important to realize that we have many people in the United States with Middle Eastern backgrounds. Even more so than with Asian cultures, they remain somewhat invisible by the more dominant Anglo culture. This work is a way to introduce some detail of the Arabic world view and lifestyle in a positive light that does not trigger our prejudices. Nye’s ability to draw a picture of the culture nourishes sympathies rather than engages they typical headbutting that has become the status quo in discussing these matters.
Part VI: Citations
Nye, N.S. (2002). 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. United States: Greenwillow Books.
Naomi Shihab Nye. (n.d.) Poetry.org from the academy of American poets. [website]. Retrieved from http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/174
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