Wang Ping's “MY NAME IS IMMIGRANT” reviewed by Deepak Menon

[Deepak Menon]

     Wang Ping's “MY NAME IS IMMIGRANT” reviewed by Deepak Menon 

       Wang Ping has poured her inner being into this remarkable volume of blank verse - “MY NAME IS IMMIGRANT”. The book starts with a little one pager that is a tome in effect – a dense sprinkling of the emotions, hopes, aspirations and certifications of immigrants across the world. Wang's poems are shattering in their intensity, laying bare the hearts of all immigrants as they carry tears in their eyes, and names, stories, memories of their village, scars from proxy wars of greed, carnage of mining, droughts, floods, genocides, and their diplomas even if they mean nothing to the other shore ! Wang's poems shake the entire being of the reader – for instance the poems and story of the Cockle Pickers can even bring a tear to the eye of a hardened politician. The narrative is all about the dreams of yesterday, today and tomorrow that immigrants carry to the new shores far away from their homes, and their tryst with a new reality. The new reality is mining and stringing beauty into bracelets and other trinkets for sale at cheap prices, at capitalistic malls on the golden path of a market economy.

          Wang Ping's “MY NAME IS IMMIGRANT” examines the price paid by the immigrants in the shape of lungs hardened by quartz crystals; no money to go home; all bridges collapsed! This is not noticed by the world or by the owners who have never worked in the factories built by sweat and tears of immigrants. Loitering in courts and hospitals, they pray not to die in this strange land. The first few pages of the book are in themselves extremely well written and lay the outline of what the reader can expect as the pages develop into the literary masterpiece this book is. Avoiding spoilers, I think that this volume of poetry and prose is a unique attempt to present the reader with an insight into the tumultuous life, and inner turmoil in the mind and heart of an immigrant. The pace is gripping and sustained through out the book. Grammar and spelling are tuned to the narrative best suited to telling of stories in prose poetry. The language is honest and clean and suitable for readers of all ages, except little children below the teens. Wang Ping is herself a Ph.D. , and has put her skills in writing original narrative to excellent use in this book. While recommending that this book should definitely be read by people across the world, I award this book a resounding 5 STARS!
Reviewed by Deepak Menon (Poet & Multi Genre Author)