{"product_id":"maintenance-william-trowbridge-9798899750168","title":"Maintenance","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"I've written before that William Trowbridge is one of America's best and wittiest poets: funny, tender, wry, compassionate, full of insight \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e and rueful understanding. Having just read his new collection, \u003cem\u003eMaintenance, \u003c\/em\u003e I'm pleased to say that I was right. Whether he tackles being a boy or a teenager, being the new guy in a tin can factory, or a college teacher on the low end of the adjunct scale, Trowbridge tells it like it was, and like it is: occasionally grim, but replete with humor and such good writing that, if it wouldn't scare my wife, I'd stand up from my desk and cheer.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Charles Harper Webb, author of \u003cem\u003eSidebend World\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Maintenance \u003c\/em\u003eis a sharp, funny, and unflinching look at American life past and present. William Trowbridge writes with clear-eyed wit and deep compassion, turning our everyday messes and momentary wins into acrobatic, virtuosic art. These accomplished poems remind us that maintenance-of language, of history, of ourselves-is both necessary and absurd. A wise, wry, and humane collection, Trowbridge remains one of America's most engaging and generous poetic voices. A joy to read!\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Elizabeth Powell, author of \u003cem\u003eAtomizer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"William Trowbridge's newest collection of poems, \u003cem\u003eMaintenance, \u003c\/em\u003e grapples with the Sisyphean tasks of upkeep and repair against the inevitable \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e vicissitudes of entropy, decay, complacency, and despair. \u003cem\u003eMaintenance \u003c\/em\u003econsiders what it means to be entangled within the violent machineries \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e of war, industry, capital and stuck, Groundhog Day-esque, in cyclical patterns that reveal the foibles and failings of human nature. With his trademark piercing wit and searing intelligence, Trowbridge peels back the histories we collectively seem doomed to repeat-familial, national, global. These poems navigate childhood memory, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e labor, and constructions of American masculinity. Trowbridge raises a glass to both the folly and horror of the end times in elegiac and \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e gracefully rendered lines-ruefully hilarious, ekphrastic and elegant-confirming the enduring power of art in the midst of absurdity.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh, Author of \u003cem\u003eTsunami vs. the Fukushima 50\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e William Trowbridge\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798899750168\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Spartan Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/18\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 116\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.36lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.28d","brand":"William Trowbridge","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47931200798975,"sku":"9798899750168","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_7b89cfb7-8c36-4e8b-a57a-46eb38ac54b8.jpg?v=1766347135","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/maintenance-william-trowbridge-9798899750168","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}