{"product_id":"ballyhoo-hastings-hensel-9781421428758","title":"Ballyhoo","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eA poetry collection that grapples with the tragicomic nature of language, memory, love, work, and the performative self.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThough at times whimsical and witty, the poems in Hastings Hensel's \u003ci\u003eBallyhoo\u003c\/i\u003e inhabit the world beyond and between the punchline. In tightly controlled meditations on language's limits and its necessity, as well as on the many forms that humor takes--comedy, laughter, farce, clowning, parody, and more--Hensel navigates fine lines between joy and sadness, jokes and cruelty, reality and illusion, and irony and sincerity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUniversal in scope, the 47 poems in \u003ci\u003eBallyhoo \u003c\/i\u003eare richly idiomatic and evocative. They are also frequently grounded in the southern Atlantic coast with its particular ecology, characters, history, and myth. The pleasure in reading these poems comes from the original connections Hensel makes between the literary and the gritty: an elegy set in a bait shop, \u003ci\u003eTwelfth Night\u003c\/i\u003e's Feste delivering a monologue in a bar, a villanelle about a murder on a cruise ship. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese intelligent, insightful poems remind us of the frail but important relationships between comedy, memory, and identity. \u003ci\u003eBallyhoo \u003c\/i\u003eoffers a sobering examination of the tragicomic nature of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Hastings Hensel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 142142875X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781421428758\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Johns Hopkins University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/02\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 104\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.40d","brand":"Hastings Hensel","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47001423085823,"sku":"9781421428758","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_543ede50-1b7f-4f16-8b94-f8a359ce3857.jpg?v=1751601031","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/ballyhoo-hastings-hensel-9781421428758","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}