For a Citizen of These United States | Literary Criticism & Book Review

For a Citizen of These United States Critical Overview

It is not unusual for a talented young immigrant writer with a less-than-happy past to find an intrigued and sympathetic audience in America. Not all of them, however, have the success of Li-Young Lee, who seems to dwell beyond the normal level on his family's history as the basis for his poetry. But in spite of this seeming obsession, Lee has been accepted as a viable poetic voice since the publication his first collection, Rose, in 1986. Critics praise his candor in relating real-life experiences and his ability to do so both forcefully and creatively. In an article for Melus, critic Mary Slowik calls Lee's writing "insistently in the present tense, where past experience and future promise are fused in the confusion of the present moment, intensely and immediately experienced." In Publishers Weekly, Penny Kaganoff describes Lee's second collection, The City in Which I Love You, as a "journey through...
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