Silk Dress

Lydia Chang's poems bravely scale the emotional registers of a Chinese American woman finding her way: from the pain of loss, longing, and leaving an abusive relationship, to the power of reclaiming a self, to wryly uncovering the humor of daily tasks. Combining simple wisdom with searing images of childbearing, immigration, and love, Chang navigates the violence of war and its reverberations in the body of a survivor. Here's a feminist voice born of a full life, extraordinarily young and playful at heart. In lines that embody rage, grief, laughter, love, and determination, the reader accompanies her on the journey from her childhood in China, through a difficult and abusive marriage, to the meaningful and fulfilled life, personal and professional, that she found here in the United States.