{"product_id":"rational-anthem-casey-thayer-9781682262047","title":"Rational Anthem","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist, 2022 Miller Williams Poetry Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a voice at times electrified by caustic cynicism, at other times stripped bare by grief, Casey Thayer's \u003ci\u003eRational Anthem\u003c\/i\u003e offers wry tribute to \"the greatest country God could craft with the mules he had \/ on hand.\" In seeking to tell the story of the ragged world around him, Thayer examines the links among flag-waving populism, religious fervor, and toxic masculinity. Here male intimacy--among childhood friends, between father and son, and in the tenuous bonds between young adults--generally finds acceptance only when expressed through a shared passion for guns and hunting: \"I helped my father clean his hands with field grass, \/ convinced we had shared a moment \/ in rolling the internal organs out of the abdomen.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \"How-To,\" the book's closer--a mash-up of instructions from active-shooter trainings attended by the poet--Thayer grasps at strategies for surviving a world where we have come to see school shootings as routine: \"Grab a textbook, they instructed my child, and hug it to your chest over your heart.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFormally deft and lyrically dense, \u003ci\u003eRational Anthem\u003c\/i\u003e asks why we find it so hard to change the stories we keep repeating.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Casey Thayer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1682262049\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781682262047\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Arkansas Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 94\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.30d","brand":"Casey Thayer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44048720298239,"sku":"9781682262047","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_84bf5ba9-4695-41b9-9bcb-f35d809e4ad1.jpg?v=1684997432","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/rational-anthem-casey-thayer-9781682262047","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}