A Night Without Armor: Summary and book reviews of A Night Without Armor by Jewel Kilcher, plus links to an excerpt from A Night Without Armor and a biography of Jewel Kilcher.

I've learned that not all poetry lends itself to music -- some thoughts need to be sung only against the silence. There are softer and less tangible part[s] of our selves that are so essential to peace, to openheartedness, to unfolding the vision and the spiritual realm of our lives, to exposing our souls. - Jewel, From the Preface. Writing poems and keeping journals since childhood, Jewel has been searching for truth and meaning, turning to her words to record, to discover, and to reflect. In A Night Without Armor, her first collection of poetry, Jewel explores the fire of first love, the fading of passion, the giving of trust, the lessons of betrayal, and the healing of intimacy. She delves into matters of the home, the comfort of family, the beauty of Alaska, and the dislocation of divorce. And then there are the images of the road, the people, the bars, the planes, places exotic and mundane, loneliness and friendship. Frank and honest, serious and suddenly playful, A Night Without Armor is a talented artist's intimate portrait of what makes us uniquely human.

Media Reviews

The New York Observer - James Hunter Jewel has a fairly scary way to save our souls: not memoir or fiction or even poetic effects smuggled into records or movies or whatever, but poetry - its big, bad super bizarre self, stuff written in lines, stuff that reduces beastie boys and cool chicks everywhere to states of literary terror.   Entertainment Weekly - Andrew Essex [H]er best poems, raw autobiographical sketches that chronicle her Alaskan upbringing, hint that Jewel is just a polish away from shining.   Library Journal For people who don't regularly follow MTV (which unfortunately includes most of those who listen to poetry), Jewel will seem to have sprung up out of nowhere. But the 23-year-old Alaska native has four albums to her credit and several web sites. ...Sure, there are too many prepositions and some cliched images; an attempt to be philosophical is laughable; and many "poems" are nothing more than fragments. But a lot of the material is also straightforward and deeply honest...Certainly, she's as good as Leonard Cohen and deserves serious attention from poetry lovers.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by leoniez
Not bad at all
I picked this book up at my school library and thought that it was truly a refreshing read. Sure, some of her poems may not be as polished as the works of great writers like Eliot or Heaney, but they have earned the right to be called poetry too....   Read More

Rated of 5 by Marta Miscichowska
Intruiging and Inspiring
This book is an easy read which makes it more appealing to people who are not familiar with poetry. It is well written and raw, I enjoyed it and recommend it as a late night read.

Rated of 5 by Erica
I am 18 and I found this poetry book very inspiring. I do not agree with the review written earlier about Jewel's poetry. When reading this you will find that some things are very straight forward and other poems have a deeper meaning to them. The...   Read More

Rated of 5 by max
this book was VG, jewel was bold and wrote what she felt wich (to me) is brave.
It was in a form of poetry that is rarely (if ever) used like in her song 'Peaces of you" she used one emotion to inflict meany emotions.
this singer/poet...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Sarah J
i feel that the only reason this book was published was because she was a popular singer. if it were anyone else i feel this book would have gone no where. personally i think her style is very elementry and to me it seems like she wrote the book in...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Richard David
I have always listened to jewels music, she has inspired me numerous times. I had the chance to read her book "A Night Without Armor" for the first time when i saw it at our local library. i could not put it down. I read the book all the...   Read More

...17 More Reader Reviews

Readalikes

If you liked A Night Without Armor, try these:

---

---

This is one of 2 readalike suggestions for A Night Without Armor. Members have full access to all readalikes. If you are a member, please login. To find out more about membership, click here.

Books with similar themes

• Short Stories & Essays
  
• Young Adults
  
• 1st Books/1st Novels