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Babylon in a Jar: New Poems
 
 
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Babylon in a Jar: New Poems (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "I couldn't stand still watching them forever,..." (more)
Key Phrases: Book of Wonders, Tommy Posey
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)


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  Hardcover, August 2, 1998 -- $4.94 $0.68
  Paperback, April 24, 2001 $10.95 $0.58 $0.01

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Casting a bemused eye on both ordinary and extraordinary experience, the poet of this fifth collection reports his discoveries in poems brimming with charm?and rigorous technique. Throughout, expressive line breaks and syntax combine with an everyday vocabulary to create a tone that beckons and disarms. One never struggles or puzzles over a Hudgins poem, but instead chuckles at the quandary of housekeys snagged on a power line ("Keys"), contemplates a neighbor's tree festooned with bottle glass ("The Bottle Tree") or reflects on the murder of a kindly jeweler ("How to Stop"). Unfortunately, even Hudgins's technical virtuosity cannot offset the colorlessness of his language, resulting in few lines or poems that resonate in a reader's memory. Too often Hudgins's subjects and treatment of them lack emotional urgency, lapsing into wordy narratives and descriptions, or merely interesting epiphanies. (A poem that begins crisply with the narrator saving the accidentally spilled ashes of a girl he once "flirted with/ ungracefully a time or two" ends with him disposing of them because "they are sheer dust/ and should be honored as the dust they are.") Some readers might detect a philosophical subtlety beneath these casual surfaces, only to be dropped back into formulaic confessional narrative by the end of the poem. One closes the book feeling entertained?often wonderfully so?but unmoved, unchanged.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal

Often flowing over the page in a sort of loose latticework of words, Hudgins's poems give an immediate sense of energy and freedom. There are little edges of violence throughoutAa copperhead strikes the poet's boot, even daffodils don't spring but eruptAand a sense of spinning just on the edge. But the poet is in control, bringing us back to safety: "before he flooded the rubble, he swept up the dust of Babylon/ to give as presents, and he stored it in a jar." Just be careful about opening the lid.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 72 pages
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (August 3, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0395909945
  • ISBN-13: 978-0395909942
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,450,102 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Hudgins
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I couldn't stand still watching them forever, Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Book of Wonders, Tommy Posey
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Babylon In A Jar, January 13, 2000
"After Muscling through sharp greenery and after lopping humped limbs back as far as lopping shears would take them"

So begins a poem in Babylon In A Jar who's structure and form evokes the mythic narrative quality of the best of Gary Snyder married to the intuitive grasp of rhythm that Dylan Thomas wrote in so well. Hudgins speaks in a common language rich in metaphor of simple moments in life, yet without wallowing in the sentimental.

This is by the far the strongest single voice in poetry to write consistently well - poem after poem, book after book, within the past decade. I checked out five of his titles from the library and opened each at random without disappointment. Nothing good said of this writer should be taken for hyperbole. Babylon In A Jar is among his best.

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant book encompassing the verities of the heart., December 2, 1998
By A Customer
Each of Andrew Hudgins' books makes one hunger for the next. His work is brilliant, true, and beautifully accessible.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Andrew Hudgins - A Delightful collection of poems, August 22, 2002
I have read and re-read this book and always find something new to love. Andrew's narrative southern voice is at once humorous and true. Although his poetry is usually written in playful formalism, there is a bit more of the lyric in this book. His fusion of the divine and the earthy here is particularly effective.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry that hits you right between the eyes.
I cannot recommend this book of poetry more highly. I have read Babylon in a Jar, over numerous times and still never grow weary of it. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Tim Timmerman

4.0 out of 5 stars Hudgins latest book
This is the first book by Hudgins that I've read. I've seen his poems in magazines, and those I've seen from Saints and Strangers I really loved. Read more
Published on May 14, 2002 by adead_poet@hotmail.com

5.0 out of 5 stars Hudgins Excels as Always
I would dare to say that those who have problems with Babylon in a Jar perhaps have not read it closely enough. Read more
Published on November 2, 2001 by matt purcell

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment
Hudgins's new book is his weakest yet. He has not taken enough time between books, and seems content to slap together whatever verse he has lying around into a new manuscript... Read more
Published on January 25, 2000

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your time/money
Of course, with poetry, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This was recommended to me and I found it to be awful. Too bad there's no zero-star choice in ranking it.
Published on March 26, 1999

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