The Chasers - Softcover

Rosaldo, Renato

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478004770 ISBN 13: 9781478004776

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2019

Synopsis

Renato Rosaldo's new prose poetry collection shares his experiences and those of his group of twelve Mexican American Tucson High School friends known as the Chasers as they grew up, graduated, and fell out of touch. Derived from interviews with the Chasers and three other friends conducted after their fiftieth high school reunion, Rosaldo's poems present a chorus of distinct voices and perspectives that convey the realities of Chicano life on the borderlands from the 1950s to the present.

About this title

About the Author:

Renato Rosaldo is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at New York University and the author of several books, including The Day of Shelly's Death, also published by Duke University Press.

Review:

"I love this book—the voices, the stories, and the corazón. It's a great collection accessible to poets and Chasers alike, and to kids and adults and académicos, y los que se creen pendejos pero no lo son. It's wise and funny and heartbreaking and moving. Bravo. Felicidades. What a lovely trip Renato Rosaldo has made to the interior of the border and to that other interior, his own heart." (Sandra Cisneros)

“Caught between the new cultural vibrations of Elvis and contesting verses of Aztec poets, between being a brown, silenced outcast versus a wild yet polite ‘hard-assing' football hero—these Chaser tracks bear witness. We go from school-life to sun-scorched farm worker fields, from the effects of national segregation and racism, to most of all the awe and growth of collective being and humanity. There is laughter, fast talk, surprise, insight, craziness, raucous carnalismo, and blessings to those who did not survive. Renato Rosaldo has unearthed, untangled, and literally recorded the intertwined lives of the Chasers, their partners, friends, families, city, and region—their emotional, symbolic, and reflective power. He has lived it, found it, written it, and unfurled its multiple voices. A unique and radical masterpiece.” (Juan Felipe Herrera)

"In this collection of prose poems Renato Rosaldo reveals the rituals of 'twelve high school guys, more club than gang' who seem to possess perfect recall. Indeed, one feels the individual loneliness of the boys sporting their gray high school jackets, but most importantly, they know what a fair fight is. And that ritualized knowledge has also informed the full-grown speakers of The Chasers. This collection calls forth a moment in history, and, by listening to the characters delivered here, we learn more about ourselves, our culture, our own growing pains." (Yusef Komunyakaa)

About this edition

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1478004770
• ISBN 13: 9781478004776
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144