Publisher's Weekly
In the moving title sequence of this aggressively diverse collection, Oates's ( Invisible Woman ) presents Americans traveling in Eastern Europe, where ``we are `not ourselves.' / We are mimes, smilers, / objects of curiosity, / objects of much fawning solicitude / and much hatred.'' As a result, many poems here are more politically oriented than those in her six previous poetry books. There are also elegies for friends, poems about paintings. The lyrical character sketches of a section called ``Young Love, America'' are a delight, but the dramatic monologues of ``I Saw a Woman Walking'' might have been better served as fiction; exclamation points stud those overwritten pieces. ``Don't bare your soul to anyone, no matter who invites it!'' she exhorts a friend, then: ``If you do it, don't talk about it! / Not even to yourself! / And don't write about it! / Especially not that!'' Even in poems far less coy, Oates contents herself with merely nodding toward the intimate: ``What's deepest / in you you can't name / except to know it's there.'' Major ad/promo.

Library Journal
Oates has listened to the voices of contemporary culture and to her own traveler/poet's voice to shape this diverse, appealing collection of 70 poems. Giving particular emphasis to the role of women, she considers nature, art, history, relationships, and travel. Indeed, the image of the traveler is central: aware, knowing, and mildly cynical, this ``time traveler'' searches for broader connections with the world, wonders at its vastness, and ultimately persuades us that the small miracles she finds in herself and in her experiences are perhaps the only ones valid. This work will engage a variety of poetry readers and fans of the author's other works. Highly recommended.-- Jean Keleher, Wally Findlay Galleries Lib.,Chicago