Synopses & Reviews
A heartwrenching and powerful memoir in verse from a mother grappling with the reality of her son at war in Iraq Frances Richeys son, Ben, whom she raised by herself, graduated from the West Point Military Academy in 1998. He became a Green Beret, and then went for two tours of duty in Iraq, often on missions that were so secret that he had to remain incommunicado from everyone, including his mother.
The Warrior is an urgent and intensely personal exploration of what a mother is feeling as her only son goes off to war, as she says goodbye to him, misses him, prays for him, and waits for him to come home. At the books heart lies a mothers love for her sona son from whom she feels distant, both literally and metaphorically, for she is opposed to the war in Iraq, but nonetheless realizes that she needs to understand, support, and accept the choices her son has made in his life.
A poignant, accessible, and emotionally arresting book told in twenty-eight poems, The Warrior speaks to the world of those who wait while their loved ones are in combat or in dangerous circumstances. It is also concerned with the love and pain that constitute close relationships, in particular that between a mother and her son. Richey gives readers a window into a world they might not know, but a world that nonetheless touches all our lives. And The Warrior will bring comfort to those who have waited, and are waiting now. Whatever readers feel about the war, all will want to read this moving work for its power and the universal emotions of familial love it portrays with piercing insight.
Review
"Even if you don't have a son fighting in Iraq, even if you don't read poetry, even if you think you are immune to the power of a mother's lament-pick up this book and read it right away."
-Stephen J. Dubner
"Powerful . . . authenticity burns in every line."
- Chicago Tribune
"A lifeline across a deadly chasm for every reader."
-Gloria Steinem
Synopsis
A poignant, accessible, and emotionally arresting book told in 28 poems, "The Warrior" speaks to the world of those who wait while their loved ones are in combat. Richey offers a heart-wrenching memoir of a mother grappling with the reality of her son at war in Iraq.
Synopsis
A "heart-rending"(Anna Quindlen, Newsweek) memoir-in-verse that speaks to a mother's love for her son
When Frances Richey's only child, Ben, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a Green Beret, went on the first of his two deployments to Iraq, she began to write the twenty-eight unflinching poems that make up The Warrior. This urgent and intensely personal collection describes the world of those who wait while their loved ones are in combat or perilous situations; it is universal in its expression of the longing, anguish, love, and hope that constitute close relationships.
About the Author
Frances Richey was born in Williamson, West Virginia and grew up in Charleston, WV. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. After working in the business world for almost two decades, she left to teach yoga and write. She is the author of one previous collection of poetry, The Burning Point, which won the White Pine Press Poetry Prize and was released in 2004.