Facing Home by Ruth Sabath Rosenthal

FACING HOME is Ruth’s first book of poetry. It is actually a chapbook –a collection of poems on family and on life questions and reflection. The following is a explanation of what a Chapbook is, for clarification: ‘A chapbook is an early type of popular literature printed in early modern Europe. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered booklets, usually printed on a single sheet folded into books of 8, 12, 16 and 24 pages. They were often illustrated with crude woodcuts, which sometimes bore no relation to the text. When illustrations were included in chapbooks, they were considered popular prints. The tradition of chapbooks arose in the 16th century, as soon as printed books became affordable, and rose to its height during the 17th and 18th centuries. Many different kinds of ephemera and popular or folk literature were published as chapbooks, such as almanacs, children’s literature, folk tales, ballads, nursery rhymes, pamphlets, poetry, and political and religious tracts. The term “chapbook.” for this type of literature, was coined in the 19th century. The corresponding French and German terms are bibliothèque bleue (blue book) and Volksbuch, respectively. In Spain they were known as pliegos de cordel. The term “chapbook” is also in use for present-day publications.’ 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ / 28 page paperback / $14.00 retail

In Ruth’s poems, life is often a riddle or at least a source of puzzlement and paradox. Ruth’s keen perceptions help us better comprehend ourselves. We come to see life in a different light — enlightenment — that allows us to find and face our own home and go beyond. –

–Dr. David B. Axelrod, Laureate & Fulbright Poet, Author, Educator

Ruth Sabath Rosenthal gives us well crafted poems that focus on the family in heightened stages of life. The poems are emotionally charged & complex ‘Riding Past the Museum of Natural History & Seeing the Steps’ and witty ‘For Want of Red’ and sometimes dark ‘Every Sunday’. With arresting titles, such as ‘I Ate My Mother s Hair’ Ruth vividly presents human experience with sensibility and humor.

–Patti Tana, Poet, Author, Educator

Ruth Sabath Rosenthal offers no sentimental or nostalgic gestures, but rather tough-minded encounters with the subtle cruelties, the blind-spots, and the betrayals that all who have marked time within families will recognize. Though disappointment and loss are inherent in her terrain, any collection, in which the cassette tape of a last phone message is preserved in a velvet-lined box, speaks to tenderness as a counterweight to mortality. It’s that ability to balance — on taut lines — juggling a wry (and often pun-loving) wit with moral courage that makes Ruth’s poems triumphs of form and candor.

–Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Poet, Author, Historian, Educator