LENA RAI
ISBN: 1-4137-5960-2
10 March 2006
Publish America LLC
www.publishamerica.com
trade paperback
$11.95
95 pages
Poetry
Rating:
Lena Rai’s life is revealed within each page of this book of poetry—the journey from
confusion and denial to an acceptance of self that can only be envied. Additionally, she
acknowledges that living tormented in the shadows leaves the opinions of others
unchanged. With courage, she recognizes that the only opinion that matters, the only
opinion she has any real control over, is her own. The choice then is simple — be at
peace or remain in the troubled past.
Although separated into four parts, reading the book sequentially engages the reader’s
involvement with the amazing and therapeutic spiritual journey Ms Rai has been on for
some time.
The progression from ‘Love, Erotica, Personal’ to ‘Dark, Sad, Angst’ to ‘Children,
Society, Hope’ to ‘Other, Abuse, Beat’—even to the final biographical piece entitled
‘Maginkwa’—peals away the layers of Ms Rai’s hauntingly passionate life. She is
revealed as a woman justifiably proud of taking the harsher realities of life and finding
her own truth to live by.
Ms Rai’s use of the poetic medium to show this journey is simply brilliant. The depth of
pain is at times starkly revealed, but always the author’s attempts to move beyond that
shine through. Even those who do not usually enjoy poetry’s seemingly veiled meaning
will find this book well worth the exploration. Its beauty is in more than Ms Rai’s spiritual
journey — it is also in the reader being prompted without preaching to take a closer look
at the way in which life is lived, choices are made, long after the book closes. I am left
without adequate words to express my admiration for such courage and inspiration. I
would highly recommend this book to others.
Caro
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books
