Probably as dramatic and romantic as the poet himself, the life of one poet Ruben Dario, is introduced to readers in this prose poetry novel. While the information is based on events in his autobiography, With A Star in My Hand: Ruben Dario, Poetry Hero fells like the author, Margarita Engle, has taken a smidgen of poetic license to what is presented. Overall, this is a fun way to be introduced to a poet you might not be familiar with, but also an interesting format as it is in prose poetry. There are some mature themes (parental abandonment, drinking, duel with one person’s hand has been severed), but everything is tastefully done for the 10 to 14 crowd.
From the day he was found in the jungle, surrounded by cattle in a filed (I wonder how true this is, as I could not find references to it, just that his mother divorced her husband and abandoned him) to the day he finds himself as an adult we follow the ups and downs. Dario was known as The Boy Poet, and it would take him around South America. He would meet presidents, some of his idols, save a girl from a home destroyed in an earthquake, arrested, forced to teach grammar as part of his punishment, exiled and more. All the while writing about the loves of his life, the political turmoil, and create a new movement in poetry. He felt a poet’s duty was to tell the truth. And I do wonder how much he did tell.
This book does not really cover that aspect of his work but does give a
view of a person who was/is very special to the author and her family. In the afterwards, Engle talks about facts and information she did not include, plus how Dario had inspired her family (to the point of a couple sons were named Ruben and Dario).
As a sidebar, if you enjoy books about Latin America, or subjects you might not be as familiar with, Engle has several books I have enjoyed. Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots; Rima’s Rebellion: Courage in a Time of Tyranny; and Dreams from Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems. All are in prose poetry form (I might have read one other but am blanking!) However, if you do not like that middle/young adult genre, two picture books they have done are, All the Way to Havana and A Song of Frutas that also are fun.
