How to sing to a dago and other canzonetti

the long version

The 'Dago' in the title of this book of poems sings with irreverence and with fire. Whether she is writing about her family origins in such poems as 'Italian Grocer' or 'Mamma', or in the long evocative closing poem, 'Birds Remembering', Rachel Guido deVries's perspective is that of a southern Italian American woman looking first at the world of family and lovers and friends, then focusing on the dominant culture in which she and her cast of characters must live. What results is an unusual collection, at times startling, always passionate.