Memory Says Yes

Library Journal

Randall gained some notoriety when the INS attempted to deport her under the McCarran-Walter Act, despite the fact that she was born an American citizen. The incident seems to have affected Randall deeply, for many of her poems explore the idea of ``home.'' She speaks of ``my body coming home,'' of ``Always going home,'' of ``a place to be home,'' and finally ``When she goes home at last.'' Her political views are apparent in many poems; and though poetry is sometimes sacrificed to polemics, the voice is always compassionate as well as committed. ``Lovers can live in the world/ if they work at it,'' says Randall, who seems willing to do that work in her poems, where she seems most at home.Grace Bauer, Virginia Polytechnic Inst. & State Univ.