Review: Caminar

Caminar by Skila Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I have a hard time deciding whether the poetry added to this narrative or felt more gimmicky. In a story that was about the same length as a children's novella (something like [b:Sarah, Plain and Tall|106264|Sarah, Plain and Tall (Sarah, Plain and Tall, #1)|Patricia MacLachlan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327254558s/106264.jpg|2674739]) the style of writing small episodes into poems was interesting for sure. There are two things the poetic style clearly did for me during the reading: 1. It helped me make prosody decisions for the reading voice in my head, with most of the poetic devices being used to control pace and phrasing; 2. It helped me see and feel the narrative in clear segments. Some of these segments were meant for character development, not just plot. Poetry was good for expressing this, and I enjoyed the imagery and sounds when I was supposed to understand what Carlos felt. The poetry would also give clear segments to discuss interpretations with a group.

The shaped and chiasmic poems were interesting because they drew me out of thinking in linear narrative for that episode. There were fewer of these types of poems, so either they were more work or too many of them would have been difficult to read the narrative? Not sure. This also begs the question of what it would take to present the whole narrative with a more circular rather than linear feel.

As far as young people being dragged into war, this was a very small one-sided chunk. In other narratives of this type, the young person trying to travel cross country would be forced by chance into traveling or serving with one side and then as travel continued get conscripted into the other side. This feeling of no clear 'sides' was clearly represented in the poem Voices I Heard. I would have liked to see that theme drive the plot a bit more, because the plot was really just a 'from here to there' story. It was great to see Carlos' actions save his grandma and her village, because it showed a young person as capable, in control, and taking charge of decisions.



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