Overview

Prolific writer Gary Soto introduces the beauty of the much neglected literary form, the ""proverb."" His proverbs are quirky, fun, urban and enlightening for all ages. Some people might consider the literary genre of proverbs to be stodgy or out of date, perhaps pretentious and irrelevant in our techy world. Not so with Meatballs for the People: Proverbs to Chew On. These proverbs are all original, all beckoning for verbal debate and discussion, and addictive in that it's impossible to read just one. The nearly even hundred proverbs are discussion starters and could be a favorite work among book groups. They are enjoyable fodder not only for laughter, but for possible enlightenment. The title alone--Meatballs for the People--suggests substance and a hardy meal. You can really chew on these.

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9781597096010

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Gary Soto presents succinct verbal tidbits in the form of mini-poems composed of one to three (occasionally a couple more) lines of which the shortest approach proverbial character with their metaphors and structures, to wit 'A sliver gets all the attention' and 'If you eat the bagel / The hole will disappear.' Others change well-known proverbs into anti-proverbs as 'There are other fish / In the sea / But some are sharks.' But the vast majority of these proverbial meatballs are the poet's own wit meant to be food for thought about the human condition with its ever recurring ups and downs. Some of these unique insights like 'A social climber / Brings his own ladder' and 'No more sharing / When your best friend dies' might well or should become the wisdom of the people by gaining acceptance and currency in general parlance. <b>--Wolfgang Mieder, University Distinguished Professor of German and Folklore at the University of Vermont</b>

-Gary Soto presents succinct verbal tidbits in the form of mini-poems composed of one to three (occasionally a couple more) lines of which the shortest approach proverbial character with their metaphors and structures, to wit 'A sliver gets all the attention' and 'If you eat the bagel / The hole will disappear.' Others change well-known proverbs into anti-proverbs as 'There are other fish / In the sea / But some are sharks.' But the vast majority of these proverbial meatballs are the poet's own wit meant to be food for thought about the human condition with its ever recurring ups and downs. Some of these unique insights like 'A social climber / Brings his own ladder' and 'No more sharing / When your best friend dies' might well or should become the wisdom of the people by gaining acceptance and currency in general parlance.---Wolfgang Mieder, University Distinguished Professor of German and Folklore at the University of Vermont

Author Information

Gary Soto, poet and essayist, is author of forty books, including Living Up the Street, A Summer Life, Jesse, New and Selected Poems, and Buried Onions. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1995, NBC featured him as “Person of the Week” for his advocacy for reading. His books have sold five million copies and have been translated into five languages. The Gary Soto Literary Museum is located at Fresno City College, where he began writing poetry in spring 1972. He lives in Berkeley, California.

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