<p>In this powerful collection of free-verse poetry, immigrant, poet, and memoirist Jos&eacute; Antonio Rodr&iacute;guez encapsulates the experiences of an artist and citizen caught between two worlds. At once deeply personal and thematically expansive, these works offer a bracing look at the darker impulses of contemporary America.<br />
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Saturated with allusions to family, immigration, sexuality, and violence, <em>This American Autopsy </em>is also an unsettling meditation on life and death. With its provocative title, the collection calls to mind an image of our nation as a body, awaiting examination to determine the cause of death. In this scenario the poet vacillates between various roles: coroner, pathologist, and the body itself.<br />
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Some of the poems in this collection look to the past: events such as the Space Shuttle <em>Challenger</em> explosion or the author&rsquo;s first trip to an American grocery store. Others muse on more recent tragedies, including racial violence in Ferguson, Missouri, and the illicit drug trade. A few of the poems are written in Spanish, and the volume concludes with two English translations of these poems, which author originally wrote in his native language.<br />
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Even as he paints a vivid picture of American diversity, Rodr&iacute;guez exposes the deterioration of our nation&mdash;broken promises, failed prosperity, the shattering of dreams. Intimate and urgent, these timely dispatches from the Texas-Mexico border reveal the tensions and contradictions of today&rsquo;s America.</p>