Friday, September 03, 2010

Review: Journey into Tomorrow

Title: Journey into Tomorrow
Author: Veronica Camille Tinto
Genre: poetry
Price: $8.30/$16.76
Publisher: Authorhouse
ISBN: 978-1449062811
Point of Sale: Authorhouse/Amazon
Reviewed by: veinglory

The blurb for this volume reads: "Writing these poems began as a therapeutic process which turned into words that supported me during a very tumultuous period in my life. The poetry that unfolded manifested itself as an inspirational source that further comforted me during this difficult season. Ironically, the poems were able to transcend my own personal experiences and can be applied to anyone's life as an inspirational thought that can be carried through out your day. Then it becomes my hope for you my reader, that the poems found within these pages bring you the same amount of solace, inspiration, and contentment, that it provided me as I created them just for you."

Respectfully, I must disagree.  While I have no doubt that these poems reflect a genuine and deep inspiration in the author, I could not connect to them.  This book provides a very specific kind of outlook and inspiration that some will connect with and others will not.  The poems are actually rather specific (rather than  in many ways there are references to the female experience, having siblings, and constant reference to God which was completely alienating to me as an atheist who does not draw her spiritual and personal solace from that source.

For those who do not relate to the authors message there is no other level on which to admire the works.  They do not exhibit any obvious excellence of form or concept ("You can sit under your favorite tree... and enjoy reading a favorite book... Wow!!!...").  Ellipses are seriously overused and the overall presentation is unsophisticated at best. The imagery is drawn from well worn places, flowers, breezes, birds in flight and whispering voices.  My recommendation to any reader would be to look at an excerpt (here or here) and see whether there is anything there for you before purchasing.  If one if these poems is interesting to you, the rest are more of the same and could be the basis of a daily contemplation.  But all I saw was the largely unedited journal of a nice woman whose message did not interest me.

Rating: 2.5/10

1 comment:

Ashley said...

I read this book a while ago, and I find that I agree with a lot of what you said. I felt like she really put a lot of herself into these poems, but seriously wondered why she had them published.